Hi 
 
 
 

THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF THE DEVIL: 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 HIS ORIGINAL ; A STATE OF HIS CIRCUMSTANCES J HIS CONDUCT, 
 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE J THE VARIOUS TURNS OF HIS AFFAIRS 
 FROM ADAM DOWN TO THIS PRESENT TIME J THE VA- 
 RIOUS METHODS HE TAKES TO CONVERSE WITH 
 MANKIND J WITH THE MANNER OF HIS MAK- 
 ING WITCHES, WIZARDS, AND CONJUR- 
 ERS J AND HOW THEY SELL THEIR 
 SOULS TO HIM, ETC. ETC. J 
 
 THE WHOLE 
 
 INTERSPERSED WITH MANY OF THE DEVIL'S ADVENTURES. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 A DESCRIPTION OF THE DEVIL'S DWELL- 
 ING, CALLED HELL. 
 
 BY DEFOE, 
 AUTHOR OP 'ROBINSON CRUSOE,' 'THE KINGDOM OP LILLIPUT,' ETC. 
 
 Bad as he is, the Devil may be abused, 
 
 Be falsely charged, and causelessly accused ; 
 
 When men, unwilling to be blamed alone, 
 
 Shift off the crimes on him, which are their own. 
 
 SIXTH EDITION. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRINTED BY DOW & JACKSON. 
 1845. 
 

 Stereo ty ped by 
 
 GEORGE A. CURTIS; 
 
 NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " THIS sixth edition of the History of the Devil ? 
 besides large impressions of the first, second, third 
 and fourth, is a certificate from the world *of its gene- 
 ral acceptation ; so that we need not, according to the 
 custom of modern editors, boast of it without evidence, 
 or tell a f b in its favor. 
 
 " The subject is singular, and it has been handled 
 after a singular manner. The wise part of the world 
 has been pleased with it, the merry part has been 
 diverted with it, and the ignorant part has been taught 
 by it ; none but the malicious part of the world has 
 been offended at it. Who can wonder then, that 
 when the Devil is not pleased, his friends should be 
 angry ? 
 
 " The strangest thing of all is, to hear Satan com- 
 plain that the story is handled profanely. But who 
 can think it strange, that his advocates should be, 
 what he was from the beginning ? 
 
 "The author affirms, and has good vouchers for it 
 (in the opinion of such whose judgment passes with 
 him for an authority,) the whole tenor of the work is 
 solemn, calculated to promote serious religion, and 
 capable of being improved in a religious manner. But 
 he does not think, that we are bound never to speak 
 of the Devil but with an air of terror, as if we were 
 always afraid of him. 
 
 M368163 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 "It is evident the Devil, as subtle and as frightful 
 as he is, has acted the ridiculous and foolish part, as 
 much as most of God's creatures, and daily does so. 
 And he cannot believe it is any sin to expose him for a 
 foolish devil, as he is, or show him to the world, that 
 he may be laughed at. 
 
 " Those who think the subject not handled with 
 gravity enough, have all the room given them in the 
 world to handle it better ; and as the author professes 
 he is far from thinking his piece perfect, they ought 
 not to be angry, that he gives them leave to mend it. 
 
 " He has had the satisfaction to please some readers, 
 and to see good men approve it ; and for the rest, as 
 my Lord Rochester says, in another case, 
 
 He counts their censure fame. 
 
 " As for a certain reverend gentleman, who is pleased 
 gravely to dislike the work, (he hopes, rather for the 
 author's sake than the Devil's;) he only says, Let the 
 performance be how it will, and, the author what he 
 will, it is apparent he has not yet preached away all 
 his hearers. 
 
 " It is enough for me (says the author) that the 
 Devil himself is not pleased with my work, and less 
 with the design of it ; let the Devil and all his fellow 
 complainers stand on one side, and the honest, well- 
 meaning, charitable world, who approve my work, 
 on the other." 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAOB. 
 
 Introduction to the whole work, 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of the word Devil, as it is a proper name to the Devil, and any or 
 all his host, angejs, &c., 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of the original of the Devil ; who he is, what he was before his 
 expulsion out of heaven, and in what state he was from that 
 time to the creation of man, 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of the name of the Devil, his original, and the nature of his cir- 
 cumstances since he has been called by that name, . . .30 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of the station Satan had in heaven before he fell ; the nature and 
 original of his crime and some of Mr. Milton's mistakes about 
 it, 50 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 What became of the Devil, and his host of fallen spirits, after 
 their being expelled from heaven : and his wandering condition 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 till the creation ; with some more of Mr. Milton's absurdities on 
 that subject, 60 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Of the number of Satan's host ; how they came first to know of 
 the new-created worlds now in being : and their measures with 
 mankind upon the discovery, 67 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of the power of the Devil at the time of the creation of this 
 world ; whether it has not been farther straitened and limited 
 since that time ; and what shifts and stratagems he is obliged 
 to make use of to compass his designs upon mankind, . . 74 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of the progress of Satan in carrying on his conquest over man- 
 kind, from the fall of Eve to the deluge, 87 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of the Devil's second kingdom ; and how he got footing in the 
 renewed world by his victory over Noah and his race, . . 102 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Of God's calling a church out of the midst of a degenerate world ; 
 and of Satan's new measures upon that incident. How he at- 
 tacked them immediately, and his success in those attacks, . 125 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Introduction, 152 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of hell, as it is represented to us ; and how the Devil is to be un- 
 derstood as being personally in hell, when at the same time we 
 find him at liberty ranging over the world, . . . .163 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of the manner of Satan's acting and carrying on his affairs in this 
 world ; and particularly of his ordinary workings in the dark, 
 by possession and agitation, 171 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of Satan's agents or missionaries, and their actings upon and in 
 the minds of men in his name, 179 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of the Devil's management in the Pagan hierarchy by omens, 
 entrails, augurs, oracles, and such like pageantry of hell ; and 
 how they went off the stage at last by the introduction of true 
 religion, 193 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Of the extraordinary appearance of the Devil, and particularly of 
 the cloven foot, 204 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "Whether is most hurtful to the world, the Devil walking about 
 without his cloven foot, or the cloven foot walking about with- 
 out the Devil ? 217 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of the cloven foot walking about the world without the Devil ; 
 namely, of witches making bargains with the Devil ; and parti- 
 cularly of selling the soul to the Devil, .... 229 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of the tools the Devil works with ; namely, witches, wizards or 
 warlocks, conjurers, magicians, diviners, astrologers, interpret- 
 ers of dreams, tellers of fortunes ; and, above all the rest, his 
 particular modern privy-counsellors, called wits and fools, . . 244 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of the various methods the Devil takes to converse with mankind, 253 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Of divination, sorcery, the black art, pa-wawing, and such like 
 pretenders to devilism and how far the Devil is, or is not, con- 
 cerned in them, 272 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Of the Devil's last scene of liberty, and what may be supposed to 
 be his end ; with what we are to understand of his being tor- 
 mented forever and ever, 293 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Introduction to the whole Work. 
 
 I DOUBT not but the title of this book will amuse 
 some of my reading friends a little at first ; they will 
 make a pause, perhaps, as they do at a witch's prayer, 
 and be some time resolving whether they had best 
 look into it or no, lest they should really raise the 
 Devil, by reading his story. 
 
 Children and old women have told themselves so 
 many frightful things of the Devil, and have formed 
 ideas of him in their minds, in so many horrible and 
 monstrous shapes, that really it were enough to fright 
 the Devil himself to meet hirrfself in the dark, dressed 
 up in the several figures which imagination has 
 formed for him in the minds of men ; and, as for 
 themselves, I cannot think by any means that the 
 Devil would terrify them half so much, if they were 
 to converse face to face with him. 
 
 It must certainly therefore be a most useful under- 
 taking, to giv%a true history of this tyrant of the air, 
 this god of the world, this terror and aversion of man- 
 kind, which we Wll Devil ; to show what he is, and 
 what he is NOTj^Sfcere he is, and where he is NOT; 
 when he is IN us, a%d when he is NOT ; for I cannot 
 doubt but that the Devil is really and bona fide in a 
 great many of our honest weak-headed friends, when 
 they themselves know nothing of the matter. 
 
 Nor is the work so difficult as some may imagine. 
 
10 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 The Devil's history is not so hard to come at, as it 
 seems to be ; his original and the first rise of his fam- 
 ily is upon record ; and as for his conduct, he has 
 acted indeed in the dark, as to method, in many 
 things; but in general, as cunning as he is, he has 
 been fool enough to expose himself in some of the 
 most considerable transactions of his Ike, and has not 
 shown himself a politician at all ; our old friend Mat- 
 chiavel outdid him in many things, and I may, in the 
 process of this work, give an account of several of the 
 sons of Adam, and some societies of them too, who 
 have outwitted the Devil, nay, who have outsinned 
 the Devil, and that I think may be called outshooting 
 him in his own bow. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be expected of me in this history, 
 that since I seem inclined to speak favorably of Satan, 
 to do him justice, and to write his story- impartially, I 
 should take some pains to tell you what religion he is 
 of: and even this part may not be so much a jest, as 
 at first sight you may take it to be; for Satan has 
 something of religion in him, I assure you ; nor is he 
 such an unprofitable Devil that way as some may 
 suppose him to be; for though, in reverence to my 
 brethren, I will not reckon him among the clergy ; no 
 not so much as a gifted brother ; yet I cannot deny, 
 but that he often preaches ; and if it be not profitable 
 to his hearers, it is as much their fault, as it is out of 
 his design. 
 
 It has indeed been suggested, that he has taken 
 orders ; and that a certain Pope, famous for being an 
 extraordinary favorite of his, gave him both institution 
 and induction ; but as this is not upon record, and 
 therefore we have no authentic document for the pro- 
 bation, I shall not affirm it for a truth, for I would not 
 slander the Devil. 
 
 It is said also, and I am apt to believe it, that he 
 was very familiar with that holy father Pope Silvester 
 II., and some charge him with personating Pope Hil- 
 debrand on an extraordinary occasion, and himself 
 sitting in the chair apostolic, in a full congregation; 
 and you may hear more of this hereafter ; but as I do 
 not meet with Pope Diabolus among the Iist 3 in all 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. ll 
 
 Father Platina's Lives of the Popes, so I am willing 
 to leave it as I find it. 
 
 But to speak to the point, and a nice point it is, 1 
 acknowledge; namely, what religion the Devil is of; 
 my answer will indeed be general, yet not at all am- 
 biguous ; for I love to speak positively, and with 
 undoubted evidence. 
 
 1. He is a believer. And if in saying so it should 
 follow, that even the Devil has more religion than 
 some of our men of fame can at this time be charged 
 with, I can assure them, however, that the Devil is no 
 infidel. 
 
 2. He fears God. We have such abundant evi- 
 dence of this in sacred history, that if I were not at 
 present, in common with a few others, talking to an 
 infidel sort of gentlemen, with whom those remote 
 things called scriptures are not allowed in evidence, 
 I might say it was sufficiently proved ; but I doubt 
 not in the process of this undertaking, to show that 
 the Devil really fears God, and that after another 
 manner than ever he feared Saint Francis or Saint 
 Dunstan ^ and if that be proved, as I take upon me to 
 advance,/ I shall leave it to judgment, who is the 
 better Christian, the Devil who believes and trembles, 
 or our modern infidels who believe neither God nor 
 Devil./ 
 
 Having thus brought the Devil within the pale, I 
 shall leave him among you for the present ; not but 
 that I may examine in its order, who has the best 
 claim to his brotherhood, the papists or the protest- 
 ants ; and among the latter, the Lutherans or the 
 Calvinists; and so descending to all the several de- 
 nominations of churches, see who has less of the Devil 
 in them, and who more; and whether less or more, 
 the Devil has not a seat in every synagogue, a pew in 
 every church, a place in every pulpit, and a vote in 
 every synod ; even to the Sanhedrim of the Jews. 
 
 I think I do no injury at all to the Devil, to say that 
 he had a great hand in the old Holy War, as it was 
 ignorantly and enthusiastically called; stirring up the 
 Christian princes and powers of Europe to run a mad- 
 ding after the Turks and Saracens, and make war 
 with those innocent people above a thousand miles off, 
 
12 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 only because they entered into God's heritage when 
 he had forsaken it ; grazed upon his ground when he 
 had fairly turned it into a common, and laid it open 
 for the next comer ; spending their nations' treasure, 
 and embarking their kings and people, I say, in a 
 war above a thousand miles off, filling their heads 
 with that religious madness, called, in those days, holy 
 zeal to recover the terra sancla, the sepulchres of 
 Christ and the saints, and as they called it falsely, the 
 holy city, though true religion says it was the accursed 
 city, and not worth spending one drop of blood for. 
 
 This religious bubble was certainly of Satan, who, 
 as he craftily drew them in, so like a true Devil he 
 left them in the lurch when they came there, faced 
 about to the Saracens, animated the immortal Saladin 
 against them, and managed so dextrously, that he left 
 the bones of about thirteen or fourteen hundred thou- 
 sand Christians there, as a trophy of his infernal poli- 
 tics : and after the Christian world had run d la santa 
 terra, or in English, a sauntering about a hundred 
 year, he dropt it to play another game less foolish, but 
 ten times wickeder than that which went before it, 
 namely, turning the crusadoes of the Christians, one 
 against another ; and, as Hudibras said in another 
 case, 
 
 " Made them fight like mad or drunk, 
 For Dame Religion, as for Punk." 
 
 Of this you have a complete account in the history 
 of the Pope's decrees against the Count de Thoulouse, 
 and the Waldenses and Albigenses, with the cru- 
 sadoes and massacres which followed upon them; 
 wherein, to do the Devil's politics some justice, he met 
 with all the success he could desire; the zealots of 
 that day executed his infernal orders most punctually, 
 and planted religion in those countries in a glorious 
 and triumphant manner, upon the destruction of an 
 infinite number of innocent people, whose blood has 
 fattened the soil for the growth of the Catholic faith, 
 in a manner very particular, and to Satan's full satis- 
 faction. 
 
 I might, to complete this part of his history, give 
 you the detail of his progress in these first steps of his 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 13 
 
 alliances with Rome ; and add a long list of massacres, 
 wars and expeditions, in behalf of religion, which he 
 has had the honor to have a visible hand in; such as 
 the Parisian massacre, the Flemish war, under the 
 Duke d'Alva, the Smithfield fires in the Marian days 
 in England, and the massacres in Ireland; all which 
 would most effectually convince us, that the Devil has 
 not been idle in his business ; but I may meet with 
 these again in my way ; it is enough while I am upon 
 the generals only, to mention them thus in a summary 
 way : I say, it is enough to prove that the Devil has 
 really been as much concerned as any body, in the 
 methods taken by some people for propagating the 
 Christian religion in the world. 
 
 Some have rashly, and I had almost said maliciously, 
 charged the Devil with the great triumphs of his 
 friends the Spaniards in America, and would place 
 the conquest of Mexico and Peru to the credit of his 
 account. 
 
 But I cannot join with them in this at all : I must 
 say, I believe the Devil was innocent of that matter ; 
 my reason is, because Satan was never such a fool as 
 to spend his time, or his politics, or embark his allies, 
 to conquer nations who were already his own ; that 
 would be Satan against Beelzebub, a making war 
 upon himself, and at least doing nothing to the pur- 
 pose. 
 
 But the greatest piece of management, which we 
 find the Devil has concerned himself in of late, in the 
 matter of religion, seems to be that of the mission into 
 China ; and here, indeed, Satan has acted his master- 
 piece : it was, no doubt, much for his service, that the 
 Chinese should have no insight into matters of 
 religion, I mean, that we call Christian ; and, there- 
 fore, though popery and the Devil are not at so much 
 variance as some may imagine, yet he did not think it 
 safe to let the general system of Christianity be heard 
 of among them in China. Hence when the name of 
 the Christian religion had but been received with some 
 seeming approbation in the country of Japan, Satan 
 immediately, as if alarmed at the thing, and dreading 
 what the consequences of it might be, armed the 
 
14 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Japanese against it with such fury, that they expelled 
 it at once. 
 
 It was much safer to his designs, when, if the story 
 be not a fiction, he put that Dutch witticism into the 
 mouths of the States' commanders, when they came to 
 Japan; who, having more wit than to own themselves 
 Christians in such a place as that, when the question 
 was put to them, answered negatively, that they were 
 not, but that they were of another religion, called 
 Hollanders. 
 
 However, it seems the diligent Jesuits outwitted the 
 Devil in China, and, as I said above, overshot him in 
 his own bow ; for the mission being in danger by the 
 Devil and the Chinese Emperor 's joining together, of 
 being wholly expelled there too, as they had been in 
 Japan, they cunningly fell in with the ecclesiastics of 
 the country, and joining the priestcraft of both religions 
 together, they brought Jesus Christ and Confucius to 
 be so reconcilable, that the Chinese and the Roman 
 Idolatry appeared capable of a confederacy, of going on 
 hand in hand together, and consequently of being 
 very good friends. 
 
 This was a master-piece indeed, and, as they say. 
 almost frighted Satan out of his wits ; but he, being a 
 ready manager, and particularly famous for serving 
 himself of the rogueries of the priests, faced about im- 
 mediately to the mission, and making a virtue of 
 necessity, clapt in, with all possible alacrity, with the 
 proposal ; so the Jesuits and he formed a hotch-potch 
 of religion made up of popery and paganism, and cal- 
 culated to leave the latter rather worse than they 
 found it, blending the faith of Christ and the philoso- 
 phy or morals of Confucius together, and formally 
 christening them by the name of religion; by which 
 means the politic interest of the mission was pre- 
 served ; and yet Satan lost not one inch of ground 
 with the Chinese, no, not by the planting the gospel 
 itself, such as it was, among them. 
 
 Nor has it been such disadvantage to him that this 
 plan or scheme of a new-modelled religion would not 
 go down at Rome, and that the Inquisition damneol it 
 with bell, book and candle ; distance of place served 
 his new allies, the missionaries, in the stead of a pro- 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 15 
 
 tection from the Inquisition ; and now and then a rich 
 present well placed found them friends in the congre- 
 gation itself; and where any nuncio with his impu- 
 dent zeal pretended to take such a long voyage to 
 oppose them, Satan took care to get him sent back re 
 infecta, or inspired the mission to move him off the 
 premises, by methods of their own ; that is to say, 
 being interpreted, to murder him. 
 
 But there is so much to inquire of about the Devil, 
 before we can bring his story down to our modern 
 times, that we must for the present let them drop, and 
 look a little back to the remoter parts of this history ; 
 drawing his picture, that people may know him when 
 they meet him, and see who and what he is, and what 
 he has been doing ever since he got leave to act in the 
 high station he now appears in. 
 
 But, however, he knows the certainty of this fact, 
 that when he endeavors the seducing the chosen ser- 
 vants of the Most High, he fights against God himself, 
 struggles with irresistible grace, and makes war with 
 infinite power; undermining the church of God, and 
 that faith in him, which is fortified with the eternal 
 promises of Jesus Christ, that the gates of hell, that is 
 to say, the Devil and all his power, shall not prevail 
 against them; I say, however he knows the impos- 
 sibility there is that he should obtain his ends, yet so 
 blind is his rage, so infatuate his wisdom, that he can- 
 not refrain breaking himself to pieces against this 
 mountain, and splitting against the rock. 
 
 But to leave this serious part, which is a little too 
 solemn for the account of this rebel : seeing we are 
 not to expect he will write his own history for our 
 information and diversion, I shall see if I cannot write 
 it for him: in order to this, I shall extract the sub- 
 stance of his whole story, from the beginning to our 
 own times, which I shall collect out of what is come 
 to hand, whether by revelation or inspiration, that 's 
 nothing to him : I shall take care so to improve my 
 intelligence, as may make my account of him authen- 
 tic, and, in a word, such as the Devil himself shall not 
 be able to contradict. 
 
 In writing this uncouth story, I shall be freed from 
 the censures of the critics, in a more than ordinary 
 
16 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 manner, upon one account especially; namely, that my 
 story shall be so just, and so well-grounded, and, after 
 all the good things I shall say of Satan, will be so little 
 to his satisfaction, that the Devil himself will not be 
 able to say, I dealt with the Devil in writing it: I 
 might, perhaps, give you some account where I had 
 my intelligence, and how all the arcana of his man- 
 agement have come to my hands ; but pardon me, 
 gentlemen ; this would be to betray conversation, and 
 to discover my agents; and you know statesmen are 
 very careful to preserve the correspondences they keep 
 in the enemy's country, lest they expose their friends 
 to the resentment of the power whose counsels they 
 betray. 
 
 Besides, the learned tell us, that ministers of state 
 make an excellent plea of their not betraying their 
 intelligence, against all party inquiries into the great 
 sums of money pretended to be paid for secret service ; 
 and whether the secret service was to bribe people to 
 betray things abroad, or at home ; whether the money 
 was paid to somebody, or to nobody ; employed to 
 establish correspondences abroad, or to establish fam- 
 ilies, and amass treasure, at home ; in a word, whether 
 it was to serve their country, or serve themselves ; it 
 has been the same thing, and the same plea has been 
 their protection : likewise in the important affair which 
 I am upon, it is hoped you will not desire me to betray 
 my correspondents ; for you know Satan is naturally 
 cruel and malicious, and who knows what he might 
 do, to show his resentment? at least it might endanger 
 a stop of our intelligence for the future. 
 
 And yet, before I have done, I shall make it very 
 plain, that however my information may be secret and 
 difficult, that yet I came very honestly by it, and shall 
 make a very good use of it ; for it is a great mistake 
 in those who think that an acquaintance with the 
 affairs of the Devil may not be made very useful to 
 us all : they that know no evil can know no good : and, 
 as the learned tell us, that a stone taken out of the 
 head of a toad is a good antidote against poison ; so a 
 competent knowledge of the Devil, and all his ways, 
 may be the best help to make us defy the Devil, and 
 all his works. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of the word Devil, as it is a proper name to the Devil, 
 and any or all of his host, angels, fyc. 
 
 IT is a question, not yet determined by the learned, 
 whether the word Devil be a singular, that is to say, 
 the name of a person standing by himself, or a noun of 
 multitude : if it be a singular, and so must be used per- 
 sonally only as a proper name, it consequently implies 
 one imperial Devil, monarch or king of the whole clan 
 of hell ; justly distinguished by the term the Devil, or, 
 as the Scots call him, the muckle horrid Dee'l, or, as 
 others in a wilder dialect, the Devil of hell, that is to 
 say, the Devil of a Devil ; or (better still) as the scrip- 
 ture expresses it, by way of emphasis, the great red 
 Dragon, the Devil, and Satan. 
 
 But if we take this word to be, as above, a noun of 
 multitude, and so to be used ambo-dezter, as occasion 
 presents, singular or plural; then the Devil signifies 
 Satan by himself, or Satan with all his legions at his 
 heels, as you please, more or less; and this way of 
 understanding the word, as it may be very convenient 
 for my purpose, in the account I am now to give of 
 the infernal powers, so it is not altogether improper in 
 the nature of the thing : it is thus expressed in scrip- 
 ture, where the person possessed (Mark v. 9,) is first 
 said to be possessed of the Devil (singular) ; and our 
 Saviour asks him, as speaking to a single person, 
 What is thy name 1 and is answered in the plural and 
 singular together, My name is Legion, for we are 
 many. 
 
 ^ Nor will it be any wrong to the Devil, supposing 
 him a single person, seeing entitling him to the con- 
 duct of all his inferior agents, is what he will take 
 rather for an addition to his infernal glory, than a 
 diminution or lessening of him, in the extent of his 
 fame. 
 
 Having thus articled with the Devil for liberty of 
 speech, I shall talk of him sometimes in the singular, 
 2* 
 
18 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 as a person, and sometimes in the plural, as an host 
 of devils, or of infernal spirits, just as occasion 
 requires, and as the history of his affairs makes neces- 
 sary. 
 
 The truth is, God and the Devil, however opposite 
 in their nature, and remote from one another in their 
 place of abiding, seem to stand pretty much upon a 
 level in our faith : for as to our believing the reality 
 of their existence, he that denies one, generally denies 
 both; and he that believes one, necessarily believes 
 both. 
 
 Very few, if any, of those who believe there is a 
 God, and acknowledge the debt of homage which 
 mankind owes to the Supreme governor of the world, 
 doubt the existence of the Devil, except here and 
 there one, whom we call practical Atheists ; and it is 
 the character of an Atheist, if there is such a creature 
 on earth, that he believes neither God nor Devil. 
 
 As the belief of both these stands upon a level, and 
 that God and the Devil seem to have an equal share 
 in our faith, so the evidence of their existence seems 
 to stand upon a level too, in many things ; and as they 
 are known by their works in the same particular cases, 
 so they are discovered after the same manner of 
 demonstration. 
 
 Nay, in some respects it is equally criminal to deny 
 the reality of them both ; only with this difference, 
 that to believe the existence of a God is a debt to 
 nature, and to believe the existence of the Devil is a 
 like debt to reason : one is a demonstration from the 
 reality of visible causes, and the other a deduction 
 from the like reality of their effects. 
 
 One demonstration of the existence of God, is from 
 the universal well-guided consent of all nations to wor- 
 ship and adore a supreme power : one demonstration 
 of the existence of the Devil, is from the avowed ill- 
 guided consent of some nations, who, knowing no 
 other God, make a God of the Devil for want of a 
 better. 
 
 It may be true, those nations have no other ideas of 
 the Devil than as of a superior power ; if they thought 
 him a supreme power, it would have other effects on 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL, 19 
 
 them, and they would submit to and worship him 
 with a different kind of fear. 
 
 But it is plain they have right notions of him as a 
 devil, or evil spirit; because the best reason, and in 
 some places the only reason they give for worshipping 
 him is, that he may do them no hurt ; having no 
 notions at all of his having any power, much less any 
 inclination, to do them good ; so that indeed they make 
 a mere devil of him, at the same time that they bow 
 to him as God. 
 
 All the ages of paganism in the world have had this 
 notion of the Devil : indeed in some parts of the world 
 they had also some deities which they honored above 
 him, as being supposed to be beneficent, kind, and in- 
 clined, as well as capable, to give them good things ; 
 for this reason the more polite heathens, such as the 
 Grecians and Romans, had their Lares, or household 
 gods, whom they paid a particular respect to; as being 
 their protectors from hobgoblins, ghosts of the dead, 
 evil spirits, frightful appearances, evil geniuses, and 
 other noxious beings from the invisible world ; or, to 
 put it into the language of the day we live in, from the 
 Devil, in whatever shape or appearance he might 
 come to them, and from whatever might hurt them ; 
 and what was all this but setting up Devils against 
 Devils, supplicating one Devil under the notion of a 
 good spirit, to drive out and protect them from another, 
 whom they called a bad spirit, the white Devil against 
 the black Devil ? 
 
 This proceeds from the natural notions mankind 
 necessarily entertain of things to come: superior or in- 
 ferior, God and the Devil, fill up all futurity in our 
 thoughts ; and it is impossible for us to form any image 
 in our minds of an immortality, and invisible world, 
 but under the notions of perfect felicity, or extreme 
 misery. 
 
 Now as these two respect the eternal state of man 
 after life, they are respectively the object of our rever- 
 ence and affection, or of our horror and aversion ; 
 but notwithstanding they are placed thus in a diamet- 
 rical opposition in our affections and passions, they 
 are on an evident level as to the certainty of their exist- 
 
20 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 ence, and, as I said above, bear an equal share in our 
 faith. 
 
 It being then as certain that there is a Devil, as that 
 there is a God, I must from this time forward admit 
 no more doubt of his existence, nor take any more 
 pains to convince you of it; but speaking of him as a 
 reality in being, proceed to inquire who he is, and 
 from whence, in order to enter directly into the detail 
 of his history. 
 
 Now not to enter into all the metaphysical trumpery 
 of his schools; nor wholly to confine myself to the 
 language of the pulpit; where we are told, that to 
 think of God, and of the Devil, we must endeavor first 
 to form ideas of those things which illustrate the 
 descriptions of rewards and punishments ; in the one 
 the eternal presence of the highest good, and, as a 
 necessary attendant, the most perfect, consummate, 
 durable bliss and felicity, springing from the presence 
 of that being in whom all possible beatitude is inex- 
 pressibly present, and that in the highest perfection ; 
 on the contrary, to conceive of a sublime fallen arch- 
 angel attended with an innumerable host of degenerate, 
 rebel seraphs, or angels, cast out of heaven together ; 
 all guilty of inexpressible rebellion, and all suffering 
 from that time, and to suffer for ever, the eternal ven- 
 geance of the Almighty, in an inconceivable manner ; 
 that his presence, though blessed in itself, is to them 
 the most complete article of terror; that they are in 
 themselves perfectly miserable ; and to be with whom 
 for ever, adds an inexpressible misery to any state as 
 well as place ; and fills the minds of those who are to 
 be, or expect to be, banished to them, with inconceiv- 
 able horror and amazement. 
 
 But when you have gone over all this, and a great 
 deal more of the like, though less intelligible language, 
 which the passions of men collect to amuse one anoth- 
 er with ; you have said nothing, if you omit the main 
 article, namely, the personality of the Devil ; and till 
 you add to all the rest some description of the com- 
 pany with whom all this is to be suffered ; namely, the 
 Devil and his angels. 
 
 Now who this Devil and his angels are, what share 
 they have either actively or passively in the eternal 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 21 
 
 miseries of a future state, how far they are agents in, 
 or partners with, the sufferings of the place, is a diffi- 
 culty yet not fully discovered by the most learned ; 
 nor do I believe it is made less a difficulty by their 
 meddling with it. 
 
 But to come to the personal and original of the 
 Devil, or, as I said before, of Devils ; I allow him to 
 come of an ancient family, for he is from heaven ; and, 
 more truly than the Romans could say of their idolized 
 Numa, he is of the race of the gods. 
 
 That Satan is a fallen angel, a rebel seraph, cast out 
 for his rebellion, is the general opinion, and it is not 
 my business to dispute things universally received ; as 
 he was tried, condemned, and the sentence of expulsion 
 executed on him, in heaven, he is in this world like a 
 transported felon never to return ; his crime, whatever 
 particular aggravations it might have, it is certain, 
 amounted to high treason against his Lord and Gov- 
 ernor, who was also his Maker ; against whom he rose 
 in rebellion, took up arms, and, in a word, raised an 
 horrid and unnatural war in his dominions ; but being 
 overcome in battle, and made prisoner, he and all his 
 host, whose numbers were infinite, all glorious angels 
 like himself, lost at once their beauty and glory with 
 their innocence, and commenced Devils, being trans- 
 formed by crime into monsters and frightful objects ; 
 such as to describe, human fancy is obliged to draw 
 pictures and descriptions in such forms as are most 
 hateful and frightful to the imagination. 
 
 These notions, I doubt not, gave birth to all the 
 beauteous images and sublime expressions in Mr. Mil- 
 ton's majestic poem ; where, though he has played the 
 poet in the most luxuriant manner, he has sinned 
 against Satan most egregiously, and done the Devil a 
 manifest injury in a great many particulars, as 1 shall 
 show in its place. And as I shall be obliged to do 
 Satan justice when I come to that part of his history, 
 Mr. Milton's admirers must pardon me, if I let them 
 see, that though I admire Mr. Milton as a poet, yet 
 that he was greatly out in matters of history, and 
 especially the history of the Devil ; in short, that he 
 has charged Satan falsely in several particulars ; and 
 so he has Adam and Eve too : but that I shall leave 
 
22 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 till I come to the history of the royal family of Eden; 
 which I resolve to present you with when the Devil 
 and I have done with one another. 
 
 But not to run down Mr. Milton neither, whose 
 poetry, or his judgment, cannot he reproached without 
 injury to our own ; all those bright ideas of his, whicli 
 make his poem so justly valued, whether they are 
 capable of proof as to the fact, are, notwithstanding, 
 confirmations of my hypothesis ; and are taken from 
 a supposition of the personality of the Devil, placing 
 him at the head of the infernal host, as a sovereign 
 elevated spirit, and monarch of hell ; and as such it is 
 that I undertake to write his history. 
 
 By the word hell I do not suppose, or at least not 
 determine, that his residence, or that of the whole 
 army of Devils, is yet in the same local hell, to which 
 the divines tell us he shall be at last chained down ; 
 or at least that he is yet confined to it ; for we shall 
 find he is at present a prisoner at large ; of both which 
 circumstances of Satan, I shall take occasion to speak 
 in its course. 
 
 But when^I call the Devil the monarch of hell. I 
 am to be understood as suits to the present purpose ; 
 that he is the sovereign of all the race of hell, that is 
 to say, of all the devils or spirits of the infernal clan, 
 let their numbers, quality and powers be what they 
 will. 
 
 Upon this supposed personality and superiority of 
 Satan, or, as I call it, the sovereignty and government 
 of one Devil above all the rest ; I say, upon this notion 
 are formed all the systems of the dark side of futurity, 
 that we can form in our minds : and so general is the 
 opinion of it, that it will hardly bear to be opposed by 
 any other argument, at least that will bear to be reas- 
 oned upon : all the notions of a parity of Devils, or 
 making a commonwealth among the black divan, seem 
 to be enthusiastic and visionary ; but with no consist- 
 ency or certainty ; and is so generally exploded, that 
 we must not venture so much as to debate the point. 
 
 Taking it then, as the generality of mankind do, 
 that there is a grand Devil, a superior of the whole 
 black race ; that they all fell, together with their gen- 
 eral, Satan, at the head of them ; that though he, 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 23 
 
 Satan, could not maintain his high station in heaven, 
 yet that he did continue his dignity among the rest ; 
 who are called his servants, in scripture, his angels ; 
 that he has a kind of dominion or authority over the 
 rest; and that they were all, how many millions soever 
 in number, at his command; employed by him in all 
 his hellish designs, and in all his wicked contrivances 
 for the destruction of man, and for the setting up his 
 own kingdom in the world ; 
 
 Supposing then that there is such a superior master 
 Devil over all the rest, it remains that we inquire into 
 his character, and something of his history; in which, 
 though we cannot perhaps produce such authentic 
 documents as in the story of other great monarchs, 
 tyrants and furies of the world ; yet I shall endeavor 
 to speak some things which the experience of mankind 
 may be apt to confirm, and which the Devil himself 
 will hardly be able to contradict. 
 
 It being then granted, that there is such a thing or 
 person, call him which we will, as a master Devil ; that 
 he is thus superior to all the rest in power and in au- 
 thority; and that all the other evil spirits are his 
 angels, or ministers, or officers, to execute his com- 
 mands, and are employed in his business; it remains 
 to inquire, Whence he came ? How he got hither, into 
 this world ? What that business is which he is em- 
 ployed about ? What his present state is, and where, 
 and to what part of the creation of God, he is limited 
 and restrained ? What the liberties are he takes, or is 
 allowed to take 1 In what manner he works, and how 
 his instruments are likewise allowed to work ? What 
 he has done ever since he commenced Devil, what he 
 is now doing, and what he may yet do before his last 
 and closer confinement ? as also, What he cannot do, 
 and how far we may or may not be said to be exposed 
 to him, or have or have not reason to be afraid of him 7 
 These, and whatever else occurs in the history and con- 
 duct of this arch-devil and his agents, that may be 
 useful for information, caution, or diversion, you may 
 expect in the process of this work. 
 
 I know it has been questioned by some, with more 
 face than fear, how it consists with a complete victory 
 of the Devil, which they say was at first obtained by 
 
24 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIt. 
 
 the heavenly powers over Satan and his apostate army 
 in heaven, that when he was cast out of his holy place, 
 and dashed down into the abyss of eternal darkness, 
 as into a place of punishment, a condemned hold, or 
 place of confinement, to he reserved there to the judg- 
 ment of the great day; I say. how it consists with that 
 entire victory, to let him loose again, and give him lib- 
 erty, like a thief that has broken prison, to range about 
 God's creation, and there to continue his rebellion, 
 commit new ravages and acts of hostility against God, 
 make new efforts at dethroning the Almighty Creator; 
 and in particular to fall upon the weakest of his crea- 
 tures, man ? How Satan being so entirely vanquished, 
 he should be permitted to recover any of his wicked 
 powers, and find room to do mischief tcr mankind ? 
 
 Nay, they go farther, and suggest bold things against 
 the wisdom of heaven, in exposing mankind, weak in 
 comparison of the immense extent of the Devil's power, 
 to so manifest an overthrow, to so unequal a fight, in 
 which he is sure, if alone in the conflict, to be worsted ; 
 to leave him such a dreadful enemy to engage with, 
 and so ill-furnished with weapons to assist him. 
 
 These objections I shall give as good an answer to, 
 as the case will admit of in this course, but must 
 adjourn them for the present. 
 
 That the Devil is not yet a close prisoner, we have 
 evidence enough to confirm : I will not suggest, that 
 like our Newgate thieves (to bring little devils and 
 great devils together) he is let out by connivance, and 
 has some little latitudes and advantages for mischief, 
 by that means ; returning at certain seasons to his con- 
 finement again. 
 
 This might hold, were it not that the comparison 
 must suggest, that the power which has cast him 
 down could be deluded, and the under-keepers or gaol- 
 ers, under whose charge he was in custody, could 
 wink at his excursions, and the Lord of the place 
 know nothing of the matter. But this wants farther 
 explanation. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of the original of the Devil, who he is, and what he 
 was before his expulsion out of Heaven, and in what 
 state he was from that time to the creation of man, 
 
 To come to a regular inquiry into Satan's affairs, it 
 is needful we should go back to his original, as far as 
 history and the opinion of the learned world will give 
 us leave. 
 
 It is agreed by all writers, as well sacred as profane, 
 that this creature we now call a Devil, was originally 
 an angel of light, a glorious seraph ; perhaps the 
 choicest of all the glorious seraphs. See how Milton 
 describes his original glory : 
 
 " Satan, so call him now ; his former name 
 Is heard no more in heaven : he of the first, 
 If not the first archangel ; great in power, 
 In favor and preeminence." 
 
 Lib. v. fol. 140. 
 
 And again the same author, and upon the same 
 subject : 
 
 " Brighter once amidst the host 
 
 Of angels, than that star the stars among." 
 
 Lib. vii. fol. 189. 
 
 The glorious figure which Satan is supposed to 
 make among the thrones and dominions in heaven is 
 such, as we might suppose the highest angel in that 
 exalted train could make ; and some think, as above, 
 that he was the chief of the archangels. 
 
 Hence that notion (and not ill-founded) ; namely, that 
 the first cause of his disgrace, and on which ensued 
 his rebellion, was occasioned upon God's proclaiming 
 his son generalissimo, and with himself supreme ruler 
 in heaven ; giving the dominion of all his works of 
 creation, as well already finished, as not then begun, 
 to him ; which post of honor (say they) Satan .expected 
 to be conferred on himself, as next in honor, majesty, 
 and power, to God the Supreme. 
 3 
 
26 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 This opinion is followed by Mr. Milton too, as 
 appears in the following lines, where he makes all the 
 angels attending a general summons, and God the 
 Father making the following declaration to them : 
 
 " Hear all ye angels, progeny of light, 
 Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers ! 
 Hear my decree, which unrevok'd shall stand. 
 This day I have begot whom I declare 
 My only Son, and on this holy hill 
 Him have anointed, whom ye now behold 
 At my right hand ; your head I him appoint : 
 And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow 
 All knees in heav'n, and shall confess him Lordj 
 Under his great vicegerent reign abide 
 United, as one individual soul, 
 For ever happy : him who disobeys, 
 Me disobeys, breaks union ; and that day 
 Cast out from God, and blessed vision, falls 
 Into utter darkness, deep ingulph'd, his place 
 Ordain'd without redemption, without end." 
 
 Satan, affronted at the appearance of a new essence 
 or being in heaven, called the Son of God, for God, 
 says Mr. Milton, (though erroneously,) declared him- 
 self at that time, saying, This day have I begotten him, 
 and that he should be set up above all the former 
 powers of heaven, of whom Satan (as above) was the 
 chief, and expecting, if any higher post could be 
 granted, it might be his due ; I say, affronted at this, 
 he resolved 
 
 " With all his legions to dislodge, and leave 
 Unworship'd, unobey'd, the throne supreme, 
 
 Contemptuous." 
 
 Par. Lost, lib. v. fol. 140. 
 
 But Mr. Milton is grossly erroneous in ascribing 
 those words, This day have I begotten thee, to that 
 declaration of the Father, before Satan fell, and conse- 
 quently to a time before the creation ; whereas it is by 
 interpreters agreed to be understood of the incarnation 
 of the Son of God, or at least of the resurrection : see 
 Pool upon Acts xiii. 33.* 
 
 * Mr. Pool's words are these : Some refer the words, this day have 1 
 begotten thee,to the incarnation of the Son of God, others to the resur- 
 rection ; our translators lay the stress on the preposition of which the 
 verb is compounded, and by adding again, (namely) raised up Jesus 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 27 
 
 In a word, Satan withdrew with all his followers, 
 malcontent and chagrin, resolved to disobey this new 
 command, and not yield obedience to the Son. 
 
 Now Mr. Milton agrees in that opinion, that the 
 number of angels which rebelled with Satan was 
 infinite ; and suggests in one place, that they were the 
 greatest half of all the angelic body, or seraphic host. 
 
 " But Satan with his powers 
 
 An host 
 
 Innumerable as the stars of night, 
 
 Or stars of morning, dew-drops, which the sun 
 
 Impearls on ev'ry leaf, and ev'ry flower." 
 
 Ib. lib. v. fol. 142. 
 
 Be their number as it is, numberless millions, and 
 legions of millions, that is no part of my present 
 inquiry ; Satan, the leader, guide and superior, as he 
 was author of the celestial rebellion, is still the great 
 head and master-devil as before; under his authority 
 they still act, not ^obeying, but carrying on the same 
 insurrection against God, which they began in heaven ; 
 making war still against heaven, in the person of his 
 image and creature, man ; and though vanquished by 
 the thunder of the Son of God, and cast down head- 
 long from heaven, they have yet reassumed, or rather 
 not lost, either the will or the power of doing evil. 
 
 This fall of the angels, with the war in heaven 
 which preceded it, is finely described by Ovid, in his 
 Avar of the Titans against Jupiter ; casting mountain 
 upon mountain, and hill upon hill, (Pelion upon Ossa,) 
 in order to scale the adamantine walls, and break open 
 the gates of heaven; till Jupiter struck them with his 
 thunder-bolts, and overwhelmed them in the abyss. 
 
 Vide Ovid Metam., new translation, lib. i. p. 19. 
 
 " Nor were the gods themselves secure on high ; 
 For now the giants strove to storm the sky : 
 The lawless brood with bold attempt invade 
 The gods, and mountains upon mountains laid. 
 
 again, (Acts xiii. 33,) intended it to be understood of the resurrection ; 
 and there is ground for it in the context ; for the resurrection of Christ 
 is that which St. Paul had propounded in verse 30 of the same chapter, 
 as his theme or argument to preach upon. 
 
 Not that Christ at his resurrection began to. be the Son of God, but 
 that he was manifested then to be so. 
 
28 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 But now the bolt, enrag'd, the Father took : 
 Olympus from her deep foundations shook : 
 Her structure nodded at the mighty stroke, 
 And Ossa's shatter'd top o'er Pelion broke : 
 They 're in their own ungodly ruins slain." 
 
 Then again speaking of Jupiter, resolving in coun- 
 cil to destroy mankind by the deluge, and giving the 
 reasons of it to the heavenly host, says thus, speaking 
 of the demigods, alluding to good men below : 
 
 " Think you that they in safety can remain, 
 When me myself, who o'er immortals reign, 
 Who send the lightning, and heaven's empire sway, 
 The stern Lycaon* practis'd to betray." 
 
 Ib. p. 10. 
 
 Since then so much poetic liberty is taken with the 
 Devil, relating to his most early state, and the time 
 before his fall, give me leave to make an excursion of 
 the like kind, relating to his history immediately after 
 the fall, and till the creation of man ; an interval which 
 I think much of the Devil's story is to be seen in, andf 
 which Mr. Milton has taken little notice of; at least it 
 does not seem completely filled up ; after which I shall 
 return to honest prose again, and pursue the duty of 
 an historian. 
 
 Satan, with hideous ruin thus supprest, 
 Expell'd the seat of blessedness and rest, 
 Looked back, and saw the high eternal mound, 
 Where all his rebel host their outlet found, 
 Eestored impregnable : the breach made up, 
 And garrisons of angels ranged a-top 
 In front an hundred thousand thunders roll, 
 And lightnings temper'd to transfix a soul, 
 Terror of devils. Satan and his host, 
 Now to themselves as well as station lost, 
 Unable to support the hated sight, 
 Expand seraphic wings, and swift as light 
 Seek for new safety in eternal night. 
 
 In the remotest gulfs of dark they land : 
 Here vengeance gives them leave to make their stand : 
 Not that to steps and measures they pretend, 
 Councils and schemes their station to defend ; 
 But broken, disconcerted, and dismayed, 
 By guilt and fright to guilt and fright betrayed j 
 Kage and confusion ev'ry spirit possessed, 
 And shame and horror swelled in ev'ry breast j 
 
 * Satan. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Transforming envy their essentials burns, 
 And the bright angel a frightful devil turns. 
 
 Thus hell began j the fire of conscious rage 
 No years can quench, no length of time assuage. 
 Material fire, with its intensest flame, 
 Compar'd with this, can scarce deserve a name ; 
 How should it up to immaterials rise ? 
 "When we 're all flame, we shall all fire despise. 
 
 This fire outrageous, and its heat intense, 
 Turns all the pain of loss to pain of sense, 
 The folding flames concave and inward roll, 
 Act upon spirit, and penetrate the soul : 
 Not force of devils can its new pow'rs repel, 
 Where'er it burns it finds or makes a hell : 
 For Satan, flaming with unquenched desire, 
 Forms his own hell, and kindles his own fire : 
 Vanquished, not humbled, not in will brought low 3 
 But, as his pow'rs decline, his passions grow : 
 The malice, viper-like, takes vent within, 
 Gnaws its own bowels, and bursts in its own sin : 
 Impatient of the change, he scorns to bow : 
 And never impotent in power till now ; 
 Ardent with hate, and with revenge distract, 
 A will to new attempts, but none to act ; 
 Yet all seraphic, and in just degree, 
 Suited to spirits' high sense of misery, 
 Derived from loss which nothing can repair, 
 And room for nothing left but mere despair. 
 Here 's finish'd Hell ! what fiercer fire can burn ? 
 Enough ten thousand worlds to overturn. 
 
 Hell 's but the phrensy of defeated pride, 
 Seraphic treason's strong impetuous tide, 
 Where vile ambition disappointed first, 
 To its own rage, and boundless hatred, cursed j 
 The hate 's fann'd up to fury, that to flame ; 
 For fire and fury are in kind the same ; 
 These burn unquenchable in ev'ry face, 
 And the word ENDLESS constitutes the place. 
 
 state of being ! where being 's the only grief, 
 And the chief torture 's to be damn'd to life ! 
 life ! the only thing they have to hate ; 
 The finish'd torment of a future state ; 
 Complete in all the parts of endless misery, 
 And worse ten thousand times than not to BE ! 
 Could but the damn'd th' immortal law repeal, 
 And devils die, there 'd be an end of Hell ; 
 Could they that thing called being annihilate, 
 There 'd be no sorrows in a future state ; 
 The wretch whose crimes had shut him out on high, 
 Could be reveng'd on God himself, and die : 
 Job's wife was in the right, and always we 
 Might end by death all human misery ; 
 Might have it in our choice, to be or not to be. 
 
30 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of the name of the Devil, his original, and the nature 
 of his circumstances since he has been called by that 
 name. 
 
 THE scripture is the first writing on earth where we 
 find the Devil called by his own proper distinguishing 
 denomination, DEVIL, or the Destroyer ;* nor indeed is 
 there any other author of antiquity, or of sufficient 
 authority, which says anything of that kind about 
 him. 
 
 Here he makes .his first appearance in the world, 
 and on that occasion he is called the Serpent ; but the 
 Serpent, however since made to signify the Devil, when 
 spoken of in general terms, was but the Devil's repre- 
 sentative, or the Devil in qnovis vehiculo, for that time, 
 clothed in a bodily shape, acting under cover, and in 
 disguise, or, if you will, the Devil in masquerade : nay, 
 if we believe Mr. Milton, the angel Gabriel's spear 
 had such a secret powerful influence, as to make him 
 strip of a sudden, and with a touch to unmask, and 
 stand upright in his naked original shape, mere Devil, 
 without any disguises whatsoever. 
 
 Now as we go to the scripture for much of his his- 
 tory, so we must go there also for some of his names ; 
 and he has a great variety of names indeed, as his 
 several mischievous doings guide us to conceive of 
 him. The truth is, all the ancient names given him, 
 of which the scripture is full, seem to be originals 
 derived from, and adapted to, the several steps he has 
 taken, and the several shapes he has appeared in, to 
 do mischief in the world. 
 
 Here he is called the Serpent, Gen. iii. 1. 
 The Old Serpent, Rev. xii. 9. 
 The Great Red Dragon, Rev. xii. 3. 
 
 * The meaning of the word Devil is destroyer. See Pool upon Acts 
 xiii. 10. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 31 
 
 The Accuser of the Brethren, Rev. xii. 10. 
 
 The Enemy, Matt. xiii. 39. 
 
 Satan, Job i., Zech. iii. 1, 2. 
 
 Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 15. 
 
 Beelze&ub, Matt. xii. 24. 
 
 Mammon, Matt. vi. 24. 
 
 The ngel of Light, 2 Cor. xi. 14. 
 
 The Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Rev. ix. 11. 
 
 The Prince of the Power of the Air, Eph. ii. 2. 
 
 Lucifer, Isa. xiv. 12. 
 
 Abaddon or Apollyon, Rev. ix. 11. 
 
 Legion, Mark y. 9. 
 
 jOKe God of this World, 2 Cor. iv. 4. 
 The Foul Spirit, Mark ix. 25. 
 t3Tie Unclean Spirit, Mark i. 27. 
 The Lying Spirit, 2 Chron. xxx. 
 The Tempter, Matt. iv. 3. 
 The Son of the Morning, Isa. xiv. 12. 
 
 But to sum them all up in one, he is called in the New 
 Testament plain DEVIL ; all his other names are varied 
 according to the custom of speech, and the dialects of 
 the several nations where he is spoken of: but in a 
 word, Devil is the common name of the Devil in all 
 the known languages of the earth. Nay, all the mis- 
 chiefs he is empowered to do, are in scripture placed to 
 his account, under the particular title of the Devil, not 
 of Devils in the plural number, though they are some- 
 times mentioned too ; but in the singular it is the iden- 
 tical individual Devil, in and under whom all the little 
 Devils, and all the great Devils, if such there fye, are 
 supposed to act; nay, they are supposed to be gov- 
 erned arid directed by him. Thus we are told in scrip- 
 ture of the works of the Devil, 1 John iii. 8 ; of cast- 
 ing out the Devil, Mark i. 34; of resisting the Devi], 
 James iv. 7 ; of our Saviour being tempted of the 
 Devil, Matt. iv. 1 ; of Simon Magus, a child of the 
 Devil, Acts xiii. 10; the Devil came down in great 
 wrath, Rev. xii. 12 ; and the like. According to this 
 usage in speech we go on to this day, and all the infer- 
 nal things we converse with in the world, are fathered 
 upon the Devil, as one undivided simple essence, by 
 how many agents soever working : everything evil, 
 
64, THE H1STOKY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 frightful in appearance, wicked in its actings, horrible 
 in its manner, monstrous in its effects, is called the 
 Devil ; in a word, Devil is a common name for all 
 devils ; that is to say, for all evil spirits, all evil pow- 
 ers, all evil works, and even all evil things : yet it is 
 remarkable the Devil is no Old Testament word, and 
 we never find it used in all that part of the Bible but 
 four times, and then not once in the singular number, 
 and not once to signify Satan as it is now understood. 
 
 It is true the learned give a great many differing 
 interpretations of the word Devil ; the English com- 
 mentators tell us, it means a destroyer, others that it 
 signifies a deceiver, and the Greeks derive it from 
 a calumniator, or false witness ; for we find that 
 Calumny was a goddess, to whom the Athenians built 
 altars, and offered sacrifices, upon some solemn occa- 
 sions ; and they call her Jia^ol^ from whence came 
 the masculine dinSoloq, which we translate Devil. 
 
 Thus we take the name of Devil to signify not per- 
 sons only, but actions and habits ; making imaginary 
 devils, and transforming that substantial creature 
 called Devil into everything noxious and offensive : 
 thus, St. Francis being tempted by the Devil in the 
 shape of a bag of money lying in the highway, the 
 Saint having discovered the fraud, whether seeing his 
 cloven-foot hang out of the purse, or whether he dis- 
 tinguished him by his smell of sulphur, or how other- 
 wise, authors are not agreed; but I say, the Saint, 
 having discovered the cheat, and outwitted the Devil, 
 took occasion to preach that eminent sermon to his 
 disciples, where his text was, Money is the Devil. 
 
 Nor, upon the whole, is any wrong done to the 
 Devil by this kind of treatment ; it only gives him the 
 sovereignty of the whole army of hell ; and, making 
 all the numberless legions of the bottomless pit ser- 
 vants, or, as the scripture calls them, angels, to Satan, 
 the grand devil, all their actions, performances and 
 achievements, are justly attributed to him, not as the 
 prince of devils only, but the emperor of devils ; the 
 prince of all the princes of devils. 
 
 Under this denomination, then, of Devil, all the 
 powers of hell, all the princes of the air, all the black 
 armies of Satan, are comprehended ; and in such man- 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 33 
 
 ner they are to be understood in this whole work, 
 mutatis mutandis, according to the several circum- 
 stances of which we are to speak of them. 
 
 This being premised, and my authority being so 
 good, Satan must not take it ill, if I treat him after the 
 manner of men, and give him those titles which he is 
 best known by among us ; for indeed, having so many, 
 it is not very easy to call him out of his name. 
 
 However, as I am obliged by the duty of an his- 
 torian to decency as well as impartiality, so I thought 
 it necessary, before I used too much freedom with 
 Satan, to produce authentic documents, and bring an- 
 tiquity upon the stage, to justify the manner of my 
 writing, and let you see I shall describe him in no 
 colors, nor call him by any name, but what he has been 
 known by for many ages before me. 
 
 And now, though, writing to the common under- 
 standing of my readers, I am obliged to treat Satan 
 very coarsely, and to speak of him in the common 
 acceptation, calling him plain Devil, a word which in 
 this mannerly age is not so sonorous as others might 
 be, and which by the error of the times is apt to preju- 
 dice- us against his person ; yet it must be acknowl- 
 edged he has a great many other names and surnames 
 which he might be known by, of a less obnoxious im- 
 port than that of Devil or Destroyer, &c. 
 
 Mr. Milton, indeed, wanting titles of honor to give to 
 the leaders of Satan's host, is obliged to borrow several 
 of his scripture names, and bestow them upon his infer- 
 nal heroes, whom he makes the generals and leaders 
 of the armies of hell ; and so he makes Beelzebub, 
 Lucifer, Belial, Mammon, and some others, to be the 
 names of particular devils, members of Satan's upper 
 house, or Pandemonium ; whereas indeed, these are all 
 names proper and peculiar to Satan himself. 
 
 The scripture also has some names of a coarser 
 kind, by which the Devil is understood, as particularly, 
 which is noted already, in the Apocalypse he is called 
 the Great Red Dragon, the Beast, the Old Serpent, and 
 the like. But take it in the scripture, or where you 
 will in history sacred or profane, you will find that in 
 general the Devil is, as I have said above, his ordinary 
 name in all languages, and in all nations ; the name 
 
34 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 by which he and his works are principally distin- 
 guished : also the, scripture, besides that it often gives 
 him this name, speaks of the works of the Devil, of 
 the subtilty of the Devil, of casting out Devils, of 
 being tempted of the Devil, of being possessed with a 
 Devil ; and so many other expressions of that kind, as 
 I have said already, are made use of for us to under- 
 stand the evil spirit by, that, in a word, Devil is the 
 common name of all wicked spirits : for Satan is no 
 more the Devil, as if he alone was so, and all the rest 
 were a diminutive species who did not go by that 
 name ; but, I say, even in scripture, every spirit, 
 whether under his dominion, or out of his dominion, is 
 called the Devil, and is as much a real devil, that is to 
 say, a condemned spirit, and employed in the same 
 wicked work, as Satan himself. 
 
 His name then being thus ascertained, and his 
 existence acknowledged, it should be a little inquired, 
 what he is. We believe there is such a thing, such a 
 creature, as the Devil ; and that he has been, and 
 may still with propriety of speech, and without injus- 
 tice to his character, be called by his ancient name, 
 Devil. 
 
 But who is he ? What is his original ? Whence came 
 he ? And what is his present station and condition ? 
 For these things, and these inquiries, are very neces- 
 sary to his history; nor indeed can any part of his 
 history be complete without them. 
 
 That he is of an ancient and noble original must be 
 acknowledged ; for he is heaven-born and of angelic 
 race, as has been touched already : if scripture evi- 
 dence may be of any weight in the question, there is 
 no room to doubt the genealogy of the Devil ; he is not 
 only spoken of as an angel, but as a fallen angel, one 
 that had been in heaven, had beheld the face of God 
 in his full effulgence of glory, and had surrounded the 
 throne of the Most High ; from whence, commencing 
 rebel, and being expelled, he was cast down, down, 
 down, God and the Devil himself only know where; 
 for indeed we cannot say that any man on earth 
 knows it; and wherever it is, he has ever since man's 
 creation been a plague to him, been a tempter, a 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 35 
 
 delnder, a calumniator, an enemy, and the object of 
 man's horror and aversion. 
 
 As his original is heaven-born, and his race angelic ; 
 so the angelic nature is evidently placed in a class 
 superior to the human ; and this the scripture is 
 express in also, when, speaking of man, it says, he 
 made him a little lower than the angels. 
 
 Thus the Devil, as mean thoughts as you may have 
 of him, is of a better family than any of you, nay, 
 than the best gentleman of you all ; what he may be 
 fallen to, is one thing, but what he is fallen from, is 
 another. 
 
 Nor is the scripture more an help to us in the search 
 after the Devil's original, than it is in our search after 
 his nature. It is true, authors are not agreed about his 
 age, what time he was created, how many years he 
 enjoyed his state of blessedness before he fell ; or how 
 many years he continued with his whole army in a 
 state of darkness, and before the creation of man. 
 It is supposed it might be a considerable space ; and 
 that it was a part of his punishment too, being all the 
 while unactive, unemployed, having no business, noth- 
 ing to do but gnawing his own bowels, and rolling in 
 the agony of his own self-reproaches, being an hell 
 to himself in reflecting on the glorious state from 
 whence he was fallen. 
 
 How long he remained thus, it is true, we have no 
 light into from history, and but little from tradition : 
 Rabbi Judah says, the Jews were of the opinion, that 
 he remained twenty thousand years in that condition ; 
 and that the world shall continue twenty thousand 
 more, in which he shall find work enough to satisfy 
 his mischievous desires ; but he shows no authority for 
 his opinion. 
 
 Indeed, let the Devil have been as idle as they think 
 he was before, it must be acknowledged, that now he 
 is the most busy, vigilant and diligent of all God's 
 creatures, and very full of employment too, such as 
 it is. 
 
 Scripture, indeed, gives us light into the enmity 
 there is between the two natures, the diabolical and 
 the human ; the reason of it, and how arid by what 
 means the power of the Devil is restrained by the 
 
36 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Messias ; and to those who are willing to trust to gos- 
 pel light, and believe what the scripture says of the 
 DevilJ" there may much of his history be discovered, 
 and therefore those that list may go there for a fuller 
 account of the matter. 
 
 But to reserve all scripture evidence of these things, 
 as a magazine in store for the use of those with whom 
 scripture testimony is of force, I must, for the present, 
 turn to other inquiries, being now directing my story 
 to an age, wherein to be driven to revelation and 
 scripture assertions is esteemed giving up the dispute ; 
 people now-a-days must have demonstration; and, in 
 a word, nothing will satisfy the age, but such evidence 
 as perhaps the nature of the question will not admit. 
 
 It is hard, indeed, to bring demonstrations in such a 
 case as this : No man has seen God at any time, says 
 the scripture, (1 John iv. 12.) So the Devil, being a 
 spirit incorporeal, an angel of light, and consequently 
 not visible in his own substance, nature and form, it 
 may in some sense be said, no man hath seen the Devil 
 at any time; all those pretences of phrensiful and fan- 
 ciful people, who tell us, they have seen the Devil, I 
 shall examine, and perhaps expose by themselves. 
 
 It might take up a great deal of our time here, to 
 inquire whether the Devil has any particular shape, or 
 personality of substance, which can be visible to us. 
 felt, heard, or understood, and which he cannot alter; 
 arid then, what shapes or appearances the Devil has 
 at any time taken upon him ; and whether he can 
 really appear in a body which might be handled and 
 seen, and yet so as to know it to have been the Devil 
 at the time of his appearing ; but this also I defer, as 
 not of weight in the present inquiry. 
 
 We have divers accounts of witches conversing with 
 the Devil ; the Devil in a real body, with all the 
 appearance of a body of a man or woman appearing 
 to them ; also of having a familiar, as they call it, an 
 incubus or little devil, which sucks their bodies, runs 
 away with them into the air, and the like : much of 
 this is said, but much more than it is easy to prove ; 
 and we ought to give but a just proportion of credit to 
 those things. 
 I As to his borrowed shapes, and his subtle transform- 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 37 
 
 ings, that we have such open testimony of, that there 
 is no room for any question about it; and when I come 
 to that part, I shall be obliged rather to give an his- 
 tory of the fact, than enter into any dissertation upon 
 the nature and reason of it. 
 
 I do not find in any author whom we can call cred- 
 itable, that even in those countries where the dominion 
 of Satan is more particularly established, and where 
 they may be said to worship him in a more particular 
 manner, as a Devil ; which some tell us the Indians 
 in America did, who worshipped the Devil, that he 
 might not hurt them; yet, I say, I do not find, that 
 even there the Devil appeared to them in any particu- 
 lar constant shape or personality peculiar to himself. 
 
 Scripture and history, therefore, giving us no light 
 into that part of the question, I conclude, and lay it 
 down, not as my opinion only, but as what all ages 
 seem to concur in, that the Devil has no particular 
 body; that he is a spirit; and that though he may, 
 Proteus like, assume the appearance of either man or 
 beast, yet it must be some borrowed shape, some 
 assumed figure ; and that he has no visible body of 
 his own. 
 
 I thought it needful to discuss this as a preliminary, 
 and that the next discourse might go upon a certainty 
 in this grand point ; namely, that the Devil, however 
 lie may for his particular occasions put himself into a 
 great many shapes, and clothe himself, perhaps, with 
 what appearances he pleases, yet that he is himself 
 still a mere spirit, that he retains the seraphic nature, 
 is not visible by our eyes, which are human and 
 organic, neither can he act with the ordinary powers, 
 or in the ordinary manner, as bodies do ; and there- 
 fore, when he has thought fit to descend to the mean- 
 nesses of disturbing and frightening children and old 
 women, by noises and knockings, dislocating the 
 chairs and stools, breaking windows, and such like 
 little ambulatory things, which would seem to be 
 below the dignity of his character, and which, in par- 
 ticular, are. ordinarily performed by organic powers ; 
 yet even then he has thought fit not to be seen, and 
 rather to make the poor people believe he had a real 
 shape and body, with hands to act, mouth to speak, 
 
38 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 and the like, than to give proof of it in common to the 
 whole world, by showing himself, and acting, visibly 
 and openly, as a body usually and ordinarily does. 
 
 Nor is it any disadvantage to the Devil, that his 
 seraphic nature is not confined or imprisoned in a body 
 or shape, suppose that shape to be what monstrous 
 thing we would ; for this would, indeed, confine his 
 actings within the narrow sphere of the organ or body 
 to which he was limited ; and though you were to 
 suppose the body to have wings for a velocity of 
 motion equal to spirit, yet if it had not a power of in- 
 visibility too, and a capacity of conveying itself, undis- 
 covered, into all the secret recesses of mankind, and 
 the same secret art or capacity of insinuation, sugges- 
 tion, accusation, &c. by which his wicked designs are 
 now propagated, and all his other devices assisted, by 
 which he deludes and betrays mankind ; I say, he 
 would be no more a Devil, that is, a destroyer, no 
 more a deceiver, and no more a Satan, that is, a dan- 
 gerous arch-enemy to the souls of men : nor would it 
 be any difficulty to mankind to shun and avoid him, 
 as I shall make plain in the other part of his history. 
 
 Had the Devil from the beginning been embodied, 
 as he could not have been invisible to us, whose souls 
 equally seraphic are only prescribed by being embodied 
 and encased in flesh and blood as we are ; so he would 
 have been no more a Devil to any body but himself: 
 the imprisonment in a body, had the powers of that 
 body been all that we can conceive to make him for- 
 midable to us, would yet have been an hell to him : 
 consider him as a conquered, exasperated rebel, retain- 
 ing all that fury, and swelling ambition, that hatred 
 of God, and envy at his creatures, which dwells now 
 in his enraged spirit as a Devil ; yet suppose him to 
 have been condemned to organic powers, confined to 
 corporeal motion, and restrained as a body must be 
 supposed to restrain a spirit; it must, at the same time, 
 suppose him to be effectually disabled from all the 
 methods he is now allowed to make use of, for exert- 
 ing his rage and enmity against God, any farther than 
 as he might suppose it to affect his Maker at second 
 hand, by wounding his glory through the sides of his 
 weakest creature, man. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 39 
 
 He must, certainly, be thus confined, because body 
 'can only act upon body, not upon spirit ; no species 
 being empowered to act out of the compass of its own 
 sphere: he might have been empoAvered. indeed, to 
 have acted terrible and even destructive things upon 
 mankind, especially if this body had any powers given 
 it which mankind had riot, by which man would be 
 overmatched, and not be in a condition of self-defence: 
 for example, suppose him to have had wings to have 
 flown in the air; or to be invulnerable; and that no 
 human invention, art or engine, could hurt, ensnare, 
 captivate or restrain him. 
 
 But this is to suppose the righteous and wise Creator 
 to have made a creature, and not be able to defend 
 and preserve him ; or to have left him defenceless to 
 the mercy of another of his own creatures, whom he 
 had given power to destroy him : this indeed might 
 have occasioned a general idolatry, and made man- 
 kind, as the American Indians do to this day, worship 
 the Devil, that he might not hurt them; but it could 
 not have prevented the destruction of mankind, sup- 
 posing the Devil to have had malice equal to his power ; 
 and he must put on a new nature, be compassionate, 
 generous, beneficent, and steadily good, in sparing the 
 rival enemy he was able to destroy, or he must have 
 ruined mankind : in short, he must have ceased to 
 have been a Devil, and must have reassumed his 
 original, angelic, heavenly nature ; been filled with 
 the principles of love to, and delight in, the works of 
 his creator, and bent to propagate his glory and inter- 
 est; or he must have put an end to the race of man, 
 whom it would be in his power to destroy, and oblige 
 his Maker to create a new species, or fortify the old 
 with some kind of defence, which must be invulner- 
 able, and which his fiery darts could not penetrate. 
 
 On this occasion, suffer me to make an excursion, 
 from the usual style of this work, and with some 
 solemnity to express my thoughts thus : 
 
 How glorious is the wisdom and goodness of the 
 great Creator of the world! in thus restraining these 
 seraphic outcasts from the power of assuming human 
 or organic bodies ! which could they do, invigorating 
 them with the supernatural powers, which, as seraphs 
 
40 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 and angels, they now possess, and might exert, they 
 would be able even to fright mankind from the face of 
 the earth, and to destroy and confound God's creation ; 
 nay, even as they are, were not their power limited, 
 they might destroy the creation itself, reverse and over- 
 turn nature, and put the world into a general confla- 
 gration : but were those immortal spirits embodied, 
 though they were not permitted to confound nature, 
 they would be able to harass poor, weak and defence- 
 less man out of his wits, and render him perfectly use- 
 less, either to his Maker or himself. 
 
 But the dragon is chained, the Devil's power is lim- 
 ited ; he has, indeed, a vastly extended empire, being 
 prince of the air, having, at least, the whole atmos- 
 phere to range in ; and how far that atmosphere is ex- 
 tended, is not yet ascertained by the nicest observa- 
 tions ; I say at least, because we do not yet know how 
 far he may be allowed to make excursions beyond the 
 atmosphere of this globe into the planetary worlds, and 
 what power he may exercise in all the habitable parts 
 of the solar system ; nay, of all the other solar systems, 
 which, for aught we know, may exist in the mighty 
 extent of created space, and of which you may hear 
 farther in its order. 
 
 But let his power be what it will there, we are sure 
 it is limited here, and that in two particulars ; first, he 
 is limited, as above, from assuming body, or bodily 
 shapes, with substance ; and secondly, from exerting 
 seraphic powers, and acting with that supernatural 
 force, which, as an angel, he was certainly vested with 
 before the fall, and which we are not certain is yet 
 taken from him ; or, at most, we do not know how 
 much it may or may not be diminished by his degen- 
 eracy, and by the blow given him at his expulsion : 
 this we are certain, that be his power greater or less, 
 he is restrained from the exercise of it in this world ; 
 and he, who was once equal to the angel who killed 
 180,000 men in one night, is not able now, without a 
 new commission, to take away the life of one Job, nor 
 touch anything he had. 
 
 But let us consider him then limited and restrained 
 as he is, yet he remains a mighty, a terrible, an im- 
 mortal being ; infinitely superior to man, as well in the 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 41 
 
 dignity of his nature, as in the dreadful powers he 
 retains still about him. It is true the brain-sick heads 
 of our enthusiastics paint him blacker than he is; and, 
 as I have said, wickedly represent him clothed with 
 terrors that do not really belong to him ; as if the power 
 of good and evil was wholly vested in him, and that 
 he was placed in the throne of his Maker, to distribute 
 both punishments and rewards: in this they are much 
 wrong, terrifying and deluding fanciful people about 
 him, till they turn their heads, and fright them into a 
 belief that the Devil will let them alone, if they do 
 such and such good things; or carry them away with 
 him they know not whither, if they do not; as if the 
 Devil, whose proper business is mischief, seducing and 
 deluding mankind, and drawing them in to be rebels 
 like himself, should threaten to seize upon them, carry 
 them away, and, in a word, fall upon them to hurt 
 them, if they did evil ; and, on the contrary, be favor- 
 able and civil to them, if they did well. 
 
 Thus a poor deluded country fellow in our town, 
 that had lived a wicked, abominable, debauched life, 
 was frightened with an apparition, as he called it, of 
 the Devil : he fancied that he spoke to him, and, tell- 
 ing his tale to a good, honest Christian gentleman, his 
 neighbor, that had a little more sense than himself; the 
 gentleman asked him if he was sure he really saw the 
 Devil? "Yes, yes, sir," says he, "I saw him very 
 plain." And so they began the following discourse : 
 
 Gentleman. See him ! see the Devil ! art thou sure 
 of if, Thomas? 
 
 Thomas. Yes, yes, I am sure enough of it, master ; 
 to be sure it was the Devil. 
 
 Gent. And how do you know it was the Devil, 
 Thomas ? Had you ever seen the Devil before ? 
 
 Tho. No, no, I had never seen him before, to be 
 sure ; but. for all that, I know it was the Devil. 
 
 Gent. Well, if you are sure, Thomas, there is no con- 
 tradicting you ; pray what clothes had he on ? 
 
 Tho. Nay, sir, don't jest with me ; he had no 
 clothes on ; he was clothed with fire and brimstone. 
 
 Gent. Was it dark or day-light when you saw 
 him? 
 
 Tho. O ! it was very dark, for it was midnight. 
 4* 
 
42 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Gent. How could you see him then ? did you see 
 by the light of the fire you speak of? 
 
 Tho. No, no, he gave no light himself; but I saw 
 him, for all that. 
 
 Gent. But was it within doors, or out in the street ? 
 
 Tko. It was within, it was in my own chamber, 
 when I was just going into bed. that I saw him. 
 
 Gent. Well then, you had a candle, hadn't you ? 
 
 Tho. Yes, I had a candle ; but it burnt as blue ! and 
 as dim ! 
 
 Gent. Well, but if the Devil was clothed with fire 
 and brimstone, he must give you some light ; there 
 can't be such a fire as you speak of, but it must give 
 a light with it. 
 
 Tho. No, no, he gave no light, but I smelt his fire 
 and brimstone ; he left a smell of it behind him, when 
 he was gone. 
 
 Gent. Well, so you say he had fire, but gave no 
 light ; it was a devilish fire indeed ; did it feel warm ? 
 was the room hot while he was in it ? 
 
 Tho. No, no, but I was hot enough without it, for 
 it put me into a great sweat wkh the fright. 
 
 Gent. Very well, he was all in fire, you say, but 
 without light or heat ; only, it seems, he stunk of brim- 
 stone ; pray what shapes was he in? what was he 
 like ? for you say you saw him. 
 
 Tho. O! sir, I saw two great staring saucer eyes, 
 enough to fright any body out of their wits. 
 
 Gent. And was that all you saw ? 
 
 Tho. No, I saw his cloven-foot very plain, it was as 
 big as one of our bullocks that goes to plough. 
 
 Gent. So you saw none of his body, but his eyes 
 and his feet ? a fine vision indeed ! 
 
 Tho. Sir, that was enough to send me going. 
 
 Gent. Going ! what, did you run away from him ? 
 
 Tho. No, but I fled into bed at one jump, and sunk 
 down, and pulled the bed-clothes quite over me. 
 
 Gent. And what did you do that for ? 
 
 Tho. To hide myself from such a frightful creature. 
 
 Gent. Why, if it had really been the Devil, do you 
 think the bed-clothes would have secured you from 
 him? 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 43 
 
 Tho. Nay, I don't know ; but in a fright it was all 
 I could do. 
 
 Gent. Nay, it was as wise as all the rest ; but come, 
 Thomas, to be a little serious, pray did he speak to 
 you ? 
 
 Tho. Yes, yes, I heard a voice; but who it was the 
 Lord knows. 
 
 Gent. What kind of voice was it ? was it like a 
 man's voice? 
 
 Tho. No, it was a hoarse, ugly noise, like the 
 croaking of a frog ; and it called me by my name, 
 twice, " Thomas Dawson, Thomas Dawson." 
 
 Gent. Well, did yon answer ? 
 
 Tho. No, not I, I could not have spoke a word for 
 my life ; why, I was frightened to death. 
 
 Gent. Did it say anything else? 
 
 Tho. Yes, when it saw that I did not speak, it said, 
 " Thomas Dawson, Thomas Dawson, you are a 
 wicked wretch ; you committed a great sin last night ; 
 if you don't repent, I will take you away alive, and 
 carry you to hell, and you shall be punished, you 
 wretch." 
 
 Gent. And was it true, Thomas ? did you commit a 
 crime the night before ? 
 
 Tho. Indeed, master, why, yes, it was true ; but I 
 was very sorry afterwards. 
 
 Gent. But how should the Devil know it, Thomas? 
 
 Tho. Nay, he knows it to be sure ; why, they say 
 he knows everything. 
 
 Gent. Well, but why should he be angry at that^ 
 he would rather bid you do greater crimes, and en- A 
 courage you. This can't be the Devil, Thomas. 
 
 Tho. Yes, yes, sir, it was the Devil, to be sure. 
 
 Gent. But he bid you repent too, you say ? 
 
 Tho. Yes, he threatened me if I did not. 
 
 Gent. Why, Thomas, do you think the Devil would 
 have you repent ? 
 
 Tho. Why no, that 's true, too ; I don't know what 
 to say to that ; but what could it be ? It was the 
 Devil, to be sure, it could be nobody else. 
 
 Gent. No, no, it was neither the Devil, Thomas, 
 nor any body else, but your own frightened imagina- 
 tion ; you had committed a great sin, and being a 
 
44 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 young sinner of that kind, your conscience terrified 
 you, told you the Devil would fetch you away, and 
 you would be damned ; and you were so persuaded it 
 would be so, that you at last imagined he was come 
 for you indeed ; that you saw him and heard him ; 
 whereas, you may depend upon it, if you commit sin 
 every night, the Devil will hold the candle, or do any- 
 thing to forward it, but will never disturb you ; he is 
 too much a friend to your wickedness ; it could never 
 be the Devil, Thomas; it was only your own guilt 
 frightened you, and that was Devil enough too ; if you 
 knew the worst of it, you need no other enemy. 
 
 Tho. Why that 's true, master ; one would think the 
 Devil should not bid me repent, that 's true ; but cer- 
 tainly it was the Devil for all that. 
 
 Now Thomas was not the only man that, having 
 committed a flagitious crime, had been deluded by his 
 own imagination, and the power of fancy, to think the 
 Devil was come for him ; whereas the Devil, to give 
 him his due, is too honest to pretend to such things ; 
 it is his business to persuade men to offend, not to 
 repent ; and he professes no other : he may press men 
 to this or that action, by telling them it is no sin, no 
 offence, no breach of God's law, and the like, when 
 really it is both ; but to press them to repent, when 
 they have offended, that is quite out of his way ; it is 
 none of his business, nor does he pretend to it: there- 
 fore, let no man charge the Devil with what he is not 
 concerned in. 
 
 But to return to his person ; he is, as I have said, 
 notwithstanding his lost glory, a mighty, a terrible, 
 and an immortal spirit ; he is himself called a prince, 
 the prince of the power of the air; the prince of 
 darkness, the prince of devils, and the like ; and his 
 attending spirits are called his angels : so that, how- 
 ever Satan has lost the glory and rectitude of his 
 nature, by his apostate state, yet he retains a greatness 
 arid magnificence, which places him above our rank, 
 and indeed above our conception ; for we know not 
 what he is, any more than we know what the blessed 
 angels are ; of whom we can say no more than that 
 they are ministering spirits, &c., as the scripture has 
 described them. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 45 
 
 Two things, however, may give us some insight 
 into the nature of the Devil, in the present state he is 
 in ; and these we have a clear discovery of in the 
 whole series of his conduct from the beginning. 
 
 1. That he is the vanquished, but implacable, 
 enemy of God his Creator, who has conquered him, 
 and expelled him from the habitations of bliss; on 
 which account he is filled with envy, rage, malice, 
 and all uncharitableness ; would dethrone God, and 
 overturn the thrones of heaven, if it were in his 
 power. 
 
 2. That he is man's irreconcilable enemy ; not as he 
 is a man, nor on his own account simply, nor for any 
 advantage he (the Devil) can make by the ruin and 
 destruction of man ; but in mere envy at the felicity 
 he is supposed to enjoy as Satan's rival ; and as he is 
 appointed to succeed Satan, and his angels, in the 
 possession of those glories from which they are fallen. 
 
 And here I must take upon me to say, Mr. Milton 
 makes a wrong judgment of the reason of Satan's 
 resolution to disturb the felicity of man. He tells us it 
 was merely to affront God, his Maker, rob him of the 
 glory designed in his new work of creation, and to 
 disappoint him in his main design, namely, the cre- 
 ating a new species of creatures in a perfect rectitude 
 of soul, and after his own image, from whom he might 
 expect a new fund of glory should be raised, and who 
 was to appear as the triumph of the Messiah's victory 
 over the Devil. In all which Satan could not be fool 
 enough not to know that he should be disappointed by 
 the same power which had so eminently counteracted 
 his rage before. 
 
 But, I believe, the Devil went upon a much more 
 probable design ; and though he may be said to act 
 upon a meaner principle than that of pointing his rage 
 at the personal glory of his Creator, yet I own, that in 
 my opinion, it was by much the more rational under- 
 taking, and more likely to succeed ; and that was, that 
 whereas he perceived this new species of creatures 
 had a sublime as well as a human part, and were made 
 capable of possessing the mansions of eternal beatitude, 
 from whence he (Satan) and his angels were expelled, 
 and irretrievably banished ; envy at such a rival 
 
46 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 moved him by all possible artifice, for he saw him 
 deprived of capacity to do it by force, to render him 
 unworthy like himself; that, bringing him to fall into 
 rebellion and disobedience, he might see his rival 
 damned with him ; and those who were intended to 
 fill up the empty spaces in heaven, made so by the 
 absence of so many millions of fallen angels, be cast 
 out into the same darkness with them. 
 
 How he came to know, that this new species of 
 creatures were liable to such imperfection, is best ex- 
 plained by the Devil's prying, vigilant disposition, 
 judging or leading him to judge by himself, (for he 
 was as near being infallible as any of God's creatures 
 had been ;) and then inclining him to try whether it 
 was so or no. 
 
 Modern naturalists, especially some who have not 
 so large a charity for the fair sex as I have, tell us, 
 that as soon as ever Satan saw the woman, and looked 
 in her face, he saw evidently, that she was the best 
 formed creature to make a tool of, and the best to 
 make an hypocrite of, that could be made, and there- 
 fore the most fitted for his purpose. 
 
 1. He saw by some thwart lines in her face, (legible, 
 perhaps, to himself only,) that there was a throne 
 ready prepared for the sin of pride to sit in state upon, 
 especially if it took an early possession. Eve, you 
 may suppose, was a perfect beauty, if ever such a 
 thing may be supposed in the human frame ; her 
 figure being so extraordinary, was the ground- work 
 of his project ; there needed no more than to bring her 
 to be vain of it, and to conceit that it either was so, or 
 was infinitely more sublime and beautiful than it 
 really was ; and having thus tickled her vanity, to 
 produce pride gradually, till at last he might persuade 
 her, that she was really angelic, or of heavenly race, 
 and wanted nothing but to eat the forbidden fruit, and 
 that would make her something more excellent still. 
 
 2. Looking farther into her frame, and with a nearer 
 view to her imperfections, he saw room to conclude, 
 that she was of a constitution easy to be seduced, and 
 especially by flattering her; raising a commotion in 
 her soul, and a disturbance among her passions; and 
 accordingly he set himself to work, to disturb hei 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 47 
 
 repose, and put dreams of great things into her head ; 
 together with something of a nameless kind, which 
 (however some have been ill-natured enough to sug- 
 gest) I shall not injure the Devil so much as to men- 
 tion, without better evidence. 
 
 3. But, besides this, he found, upon the very first 
 survey of her outside, something so very charming in 
 her mien and behavior, so engaging as well as agree- 
 able in the whole texture of her person, and withal 
 such a sprightly wit, such a vivacity of parts, such a 
 fluency of tongue, and, above all, such a winning, 
 prevailing whine in her smiles, or at least in her tears, 
 that he made no doubt if he could but once delude 
 her, she would easily be brought to delude Adam, who 
 he found set not only a great value upon her person, 
 hut was perfectly captivated by her charms ; in a 
 word, he saw plainly, that if he could but ruin her, he 
 should easily make a devil of her to ruin her husband, 
 and draw him into any gulf of mischief, were it ever 
 so black and dreadful, that she should first fall into 
 herself. How far some may be wicked enough, from 
 hence, to suggest of the fair sex, that they have been 
 devils to their husbands ever since, I cannot say ; I 
 hope they will not be so unmerciful to discover truths 
 of such fatal consequence, though they should come 
 to their knowledge. 
 
 Thus subtle and penetrating has Satan been from 
 the beginning; and who can wonder, that upon these 
 discoveries made into the woman's inside, he went 
 immediately to work with her, rather than with 
 Adam? Not but that one would think, if Adam was 
 fool enough to be deluded by his wife, the Devil 
 might have seen so much of it in his countenance, as 
 to have encouraged him to make his attack directly 
 upon him, arid not go round about, beating the bush, 
 arid plowing with the heifer ? setting upon the woman 
 first, and then setting her upon her husband, who 
 might as easily have been imposed upon as she 7 
 
 Other commentators upon this critical text suggest 
 to us, that Eve was riot so pleased with the hopes of 
 being made a goddess, that the pride of a seraphic 
 knowledge did not so much work upon her imagination 
 to bring her to consent, as a certain secret notion 
 
48 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 infused into her head by the same wicked instrument, 
 that, she should be wiser than Adam, and should, by 
 the superiority of her understanding, necessarily have 
 the government over him ; which, at present, she was 
 sensible she had not, he being master of a particular 
 air of gravity and majesty, as well as of strength, 
 infinitely superior to her. 
 
 This is an ill-natured suggestion ; but it must be 
 confessed the impatient desire of government, which 
 (since that) appears in the general behavior of the sex, 
 and particularly of governing husbands, leaves too 
 much room to legitimate the supposition. 
 
 The expositors, who are of this opinion, add to it, that 
 this being her original crime, or the particular tempta- 
 tion to that crime ; Heaven thought fit to show his jus- 
 tice, in making her more entire subjection to her hus- 
 band be a part of the curse, that she might read her 
 sin in the punishment ; namely, He shall rule over thee. 
 
 I only give the general hint of these things, as they 
 appear recorded in the annals of Satan's first tyranny, 
 and at the beginning of his government in the world ; 
 those that would be more particularly informed, may 
 inquire of him, and know farther. 
 
 I cannot, however, but observe here, with some re- 
 gret, how it appears by the consequence, that the Devil 
 was not mistaken when he made an early judgment of 
 Mrs. Eve; and how Satan really went the right way to 
 work, to judge of her : it is certain the Devil had noth- 
 ing to do but to look in her face, and upon a near 
 steady view, he might easily see there an instrument 
 for his turn ; nor has he failed to make her a tool ever 
 since, by the very methods which he at first proposed ; 
 to which, perhaps, he has made some additions in the 
 corrupting her composition, as well as her understand- 
 ing; qualifying her to be a complete snare to the poor 
 weaker vessel, man; to wheedle him with her siren's 
 voice, abuse him with her smiles, delude him with her 
 crocodile tears, and sometimes cock her crown at him, 
 and terrify him with the thunder of her treble ; making 
 the effeminated male apple-eater tremble at the noise 
 of that very tongue which at first commanded him to 
 sin. For it is yet a debate which the learned have 
 not decided, whether she persuaded and intreated him, 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 49 
 
 or. like a true she-tyrant, exercised her authority, and 
 obliged him to eat the forbidden fruit. 
 
 And therefore a certain author, whose name, for fear 
 of the sex's resentment, I conceal, brings her in, call- 
 ing to Adam at a great distance, in an imperious, 
 haughty manner, beckoning to him with her hand, 
 thus : " Here," says she, " you cowardly, faint-hearted 
 wretch, take this branch of heavenly fruit; eat, and be 
 a stupid fool no longer; eat, and be wise; eat, and be a 
 god ; and know to your eternal shame, that your wife 
 has been made an enlightened goddess before you." 
 
 He tells you Adam hung back a little at first, and 
 trembled, afraid to trespass: "What ails the sot?" 
 says the new termagant; "what are you afraid of? 
 did God forbid you ? yes, and why ? that we might not 
 be knowing and wise like himself ! What reason can 
 there be, that we. who have capacious souls, able to 
 receive knowledge, should have it withheld ? Take it, 
 you fool, and eat; don't you see how I am exalted in 
 soul by it, and am quite another creature ? take it, I 
 say ; or, if you don't, I'll go and cut down the tree, and 
 you shall never eat any of it at' all, and you shall be 
 still a fool, and be governed by your wife for ever." 
 
 Thus, if this interpretation of the thing be just, she 
 scolded him into it ; rated him, and brought him to it 
 by the terror of her voice ; a thing that has retained 
 a dreadful influence over him ever since ; nor have the 
 greatest of Adam's successors, how light soever some 
 husbands make of it in this age, been ever able, since 
 that, to conceal their terror at the very sound ; nay, if 
 we may believe history, it prevailed even among the 
 gods ; not all the noise of Vulcan's hammers could 
 silence the clamors of that outrageous goddess ; nay, 
 even Jupiter himself led such a life with a termagant 
 wife, that once, they say. Juno out-scolded the noise 
 of all his thunders, and was within an ace of brawling 
 him out of heaven. But to return to the Devil. 
 
 With these views he resolved, it seems, to attack the 
 woman ; and if you consider him as a devil, and what 
 he aimed at, and consider the fair prospect he had of 
 success, I must confess, I do not see who can blame him, 
 or, at least, how anything less could be expected from 
 him : but we shall meet with it again by-and-by. 
 5 
 
50 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of the station Satan had in heaven before he fell ; the 
 nature and original of his crime ; and some of Mr. 
 Milton's mistakes about it. 
 
 THUS far I have gone upon general observation, in 
 this great affair of Satan, and his empire in the world ; 
 I now come to my title, and shall enter upon the his- 
 torical part, as the main work before me. 
 
 Besides what has been said poetically, relating to 
 the fall and wandering condition of the Devil and his 
 host, which poetical part I offer only as an excursion, 
 and desire it should be taken so; I shall give you 
 what I think is deduced from good originals on the 
 part of Satan's story, in a few words. 
 
 He was one of the created angels, formed by the 
 same omnipotent hand, and glorious power, who cre- 
 ated the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein : 
 this innumerable heavenly host, as we have reason to 
 believe, contained angels of higher and lower stations, 
 of greater and of lesser degree, expressed in the scrip- 
 ture by thrones, dominions and principalities : this, I 
 think, we have as much reason to believe, as we have, 
 that there are stars in the firmament (or starry heav- 
 ens) of greater and of lesser magnitude. 
 
 What particular station among the immortal choir 
 of angels, this arch-seraph, this prince of devils, called 
 Satan, was placed in before his expulsion, that, indeed, 
 we cannot come at the knowledge of; at least, not 
 with such an authority as may be depended upon ; 
 but as, from scripture authority, he is placed at the 
 head of all the apostate armies, after he was fallen, we 
 cannot think it in the least assuming to say, that he 
 might be supposed to be one of the principal agents in 
 the rebellion which happened in heaven ; and conse- 
 quently that he might be one of the highest in dignity 
 there, before that rebellion. 
 
 The higher his station, the lower, and with the 
 greater precipitation, was his overthrow ; and therefore 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 51 
 
 those words, though taken in another sense, may very 
 well be applied to him : How art thou fallen, O Luci- 
 fer, son of the morning ! 
 
 Having granted the dignity of his person, and the 
 high station in which he was placed among the heav- 
 enly host, it would come then necessarily to inquire 
 into the nature of his fall, and, above all, a little into 
 the reason of it : certain it is, he did fall, was guilty of 
 rebellion and disobedience, the just effect of pride; sins, 
 which, in that holy place, might well be called won- 
 derful. 
 
 But what to me is more wonderful, and which, I 
 think, will be very ill-accounted for, is, how carne 
 seeds of crime to rise in the angelic nature, created in 
 a state of perfect, unspotted holiness? How was it first 
 found in a place where no unclean thing can enter ? 
 How came ambition, pride, or envy, to generate there? 
 Could there be offence where there was no crime ? 
 Could untainted purity breed corruption? Could that 
 nature contaminate and infect, which was always 
 drinking in principles of perfection ? 
 
 Happy it is to me, that writing the history, not solv- 
 ing the difficulties, of Satan's affairs, is my province 
 in this work ; that I am to relate the fact, not give 
 reasons for it, or assign causes ; if it was otherwise, I 
 should break off at this difficulty, for I acknowledge I 
 do not see through it : neither do I think that the great 
 Milton, after all his fine images, and lofty excursions, 
 upon the subject, has left it one jot clearer than he 
 found it. Some are of opinion, and among them the 
 
 great Dr. B s, that crime broke in upon them at 
 
 some interval, when they omitted but one moment fix- 
 ing their eyes and thoughts on the glories of the divine 
 face, to admire and adore which is the full employ- 
 ment of angels : but even this, though it goes as high 
 as imagination can carry us, does not reach it, nor, to 
 me, make it one jot more comprehensible than it was 
 before. All I can say to it here, is, that so it was; the 
 fact was upon record; and the rejected troop are in 
 being, whose circumstances confess the guilt, and still 
 groan under the punishment. 
 
 If you will bear with a poetic excursion upon the 
 
52 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 subject, not to solve, but to illustrate, the difficulty; 
 taKe it in a few lines, thus : 
 
 Thou sin of witchcraft ! first-born child of crime ! 
 
 Produced before the bloom of time ; 
 Ambition's maiden sin, in heaven conceived ! 
 
 And who could have believed 
 Defilement could in purity begin, 
 And bright eternal day be soiled with sin ? 
 
 Tell us, sly penetrating crime, 
 
 How cam'st thou here, thou fault sublime ? 
 How didst thou pass the adamantine gate ; 
 And into spirit thyself insinuate ? 
 
 From what dark state ? from what deep place ? 
 
 From what strange, uncreated race ? 
 Where was thy ancient habitation found, 
 Before void chaos heard the forming sound ? 
 Wast thou a substance, or an airy ghost, 
 A vapor flying in the fluid waste 
 
 Of unconcocted air ? 
 
 And how at first didst thou come there ? 
 Sure there was once a time when thou wert not : 
 By whom wast thou created ? and for what ? 
 Art thou a steam from some contagious damp exhaled ? 
 
 How should contagion be entailed 
 On bright seraphic spirits, and in a place, 
 Where all 's supreme, and glory fills the space ? 
 
 No noxious vapor there could rise ; 
 
 For there no noxious matter lies : 
 
 Nothing that 's evil could appear ; 
 Sin never could seraphic glory bear ; 
 
 The brightness of the eternal face, 
 Which fills as well as constitutes the place, 
 Would be a fire too hot for crime to bear, 
 'T would calcine sin, or melt it into air. 
 How then did first defilement enter in ? 
 Ambition, thou first vital seed of sin ! 
 Thou life of death, how cam'st thou there ? 
 
 In what bright form didst thou appear ? 
 In what seraphic orb didst thou arise ? 
 Surely that place admits of no disguise : 
 
 Eternal sight must know thee there, 
 And, being known, thou soon must disappear. 
 
 But since the fatal truth we know, 
 Without the matter whence, or manner how : 
 
 Thou highest superlative of sin, 
 Tell us thy nature, where thou didst begin ? 
 
 The first degree of thy increase 
 Debauched the regions of eternal peace 
 And filled the breasts of loyal angels there 
 With the first treason, and infernal war. 
 
 Thou art the high extreme of pride, 
 And dost o'er lesser crimes preside j 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 53 
 
 Not for the mean attempt of vice designed, 
 But to embroil the world, and damn mankind. 
 Transforming mischief! how hast thou procured, 
 
 That loss that 's ne'er to be restored, 
 And made the bright seraphic morning star 
 
 In horrid monstrous shapes appear ? 
 Satan, that, while he dwelt in glorious light, 
 Was always then as pure as he was bright, 
 That in effulgent rays of glory shone, 
 Excelled by eternal Light, by him alone, 
 Distorted now, and stript of innocence, 
 And banished with thee from the high preeminence. 
 How has the splendid seraph changed his face, 
 Transformed by thee, and like thy monstrous race ! 
 Ugly as is the crime for which he fell ; 
 Fitted by thee to make a local hell ; 
 For such must be the place where either of you dwell. 
 
 Thus, as I told yon, I only moralize upon the sub- 
 ject ; but, as to the difficulty. I must leave it as I find 
 it, unless, as I hinted at first, I could prevail with 
 Satan to set peri to paper, and write this part of his 
 own history : no question, but he could let us into the 
 secret; but, to be plain, I doubt I shall tell so many 
 plain truths of the Devil in this history, and discover 
 so many of his secrets, which it is not for his interest 
 to have discovered, that before I have done, the Devil 
 and I may not be so good friends as you may suppose 
 we are ; at least, not friends enough to obtain such a 
 favor of him, though it be for public good ; so we must 
 be content till we come on the other side of the blue- 
 blanket, and then we shall know the whole story. 
 
 But now, though, as I said, I will not attempt to 
 solve the difficulty, I may, I hope, venture to tell you, 
 that there is not so much difficulty in it, as at first 
 sight appears ; and especially not so much as some 
 people would make us believe : let us see how others 
 are mistaken in it ; perhaps that may help us a little 
 in the inquiry; for to know what it is not. is one help 
 towards knowing what it is. 
 
 Mr. Milton has indeed told us a great many merry 
 things of the Devil, in a most formal, solemn manner; 
 till, in short, he has made a good play of heaven and 
 hell ; and, no doubt, if he had lived in our times, he 
 might have had it acted with our Pluto and Proser- 
 pine. He has made fine speeches both for God and 
 8* 
 
54 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 the Devil ; and a little addition might have turned it, 
 d la moderne, into an Harlequin Dieu et Diable. 
 
 I confess I do not well know how far the dominion 
 of poetry extends itself; it seems the buts and bounds 
 of Parnassus are not yet ascertained ; so that, for 
 aught I know, by virtue of their ancient privilege, 
 called licentia poetarum, there can be no blasphemy in 
 verse ; as some of our divines say, there can be no 
 treason in the pulpit. But they that will venture to 
 write that way, ought to be better satisfied about that 
 point than I am. 
 
 Upon this foot, Mr. Milton, to grace his poem, and 
 give room for his towering fancy, has gone a length 
 beyond all that ever went before him, since Ovid in his 
 Metamorphosis. He has indeed complimented God 
 Almighty with a flux of lofty words, and great sounds ; 
 and has made a very fine story of the Devil ; but he 
 has made a mere je ne scai quoi of Jesus Christ. In 
 one line he has him riding on a cherub, and in another 
 sitting on a throne, both in the very same moment of 
 action. In another place, he has brought him in mak- 
 ing a speech to his saints, when it is evident he had 
 none there ; for we all know man was not created till 
 a long while after ; and nobody can be so dull as to 
 say the angels may be called saints, without the great- 
 est absurdity in nature. Besides, he makes Christ 
 himself distinguish them, as in two several bands, and 
 of differing persons and species, as to be sure they are. 
 
 " Stand still in bright array, ye saints, 
 
 Here stand. 
 
 Ye angels." 
 
 Par. Lost. lib. vi. fol. 174. 
 
 So that Christ here is brought in drawing up his 
 army before the last battle, and making a speech to 
 them, to tell them they shall only stand by in warlike 
 order; but that they shall have no occasion to fight, 
 for he alone will engage the rebels. Then, in embat- 
 tling his legions, he places the saints here, and the 
 angels there ; as if one were the main battle of infantry, 
 and the other the wings of cavalry. But who are those 
 saints? They are indeed all of Milton's own making; 
 it is certain there were no saints at all in heaven or 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 55 
 
 earth at that time ; God and his angels filled up the 
 place ; and till some of the angels fell, and men were 
 created, had lived, and were dead, therg could have 
 been no saints there. Saint Abel was certainly the 
 proto-saint of all that ever were seen in heaven, as 
 well as the proto-martyr of all that have been upon 
 earth. 
 
 Just such another mistake, riot to call it a blunder, 
 he makes about hell ; which he not only makes local, 
 but gives it a being before the fall of the angels ; and 
 brings it in opening its mouth to receive them. This 
 is so contrary to the nature of the thing, and so great 
 an absurdity, that no poetic license can account for it; 
 for though poesy may form stories, as idea and fancy 
 may furnish materials ; yet poesy must not break in 
 upon chronology, and make things which in time were 
 to exist, act before they existed. 
 
 Thus a painter may make a fine piece of work, the 
 fancy may be good, the strokes masterly, and the 
 beauty of the workmanship inimitably curious and 
 fine ; and yet have some unpardonable improprieties, 
 which mar the whole work. So the famous painter 
 of Toledo painted the story of the three wise men of 
 the east coming to worship, and bring their presents 
 to, our Lord upon his birth at Bethlehem ; where he 
 represents them as three Arabian or Indian kings ; two 
 of them are white, and one black : but unhappily, 
 when he drew the latter part of them kneeling, which 
 to be sure were done after their faces; their legs being 
 necessarily a little intermixed ; he made three black 
 feet for the negro king, and but three white feet for the 
 two white kings ; and yet never discovered the mis- 
 take till the piece was presented to the king, and hung 
 up in the great church. As this is an unpardonable 
 error in sculpture or limning, it must be much more so 
 in poetry, where the images must have no improprie- 
 ties, much less inconsistencies. 
 
 In a word, Mr. Milton has indeed made a fine poem; 
 but it is the Devil of an history. I can easily allow 
 Mr. Milton to make hills and dales, flowery meadows 
 and plains, (and the like,) in heaven ; and places of 
 retreat and contemplation in hell ; though I must add, 
 that it can be allowed to no poet on earth but Mr. 
 
56 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Milton. Nay, I will allow Mr. Milton, if you please, 
 to set the angels a dancing in heaven, (lib. v. fol. 138.) 
 and the devils a singing in hell, (lib. i. fol. 44,) though 
 they are, in short, especially the last, most horrid 
 absurdities. But I cannot allow him to make their 
 music in hell to be harmonious and charming, as he 
 does ; such images being incongruous, and, indeed, 
 shocking to nature. Neither can I think we should 
 allow things to be placed out of time in poetry, any 
 more than in history ; it is a confusion of images, 
 which is agreed to be disallowed by all the critics, of 
 what tribe or species soever, in the world ; and. is 
 indeed unpardonable. But we shall find so many 
 more of these things in Mr. Milton, that really taking 
 notice of them all, would carry me quite out of my 
 Avay, I being at this time not writing the history of 
 Mr. Milton, but of the Devil : besides, Mr. Milton is 
 such a celebrated man, that who but he that can write 
 the history of the Devil dare meddle with him ? 
 
 But to come back to the business. As I had cau- 
 tioned you against running to scripture for shelter in 
 cases of difficulty, scripture weighing very little among 
 the people I am directing my speech to ; so indeed 
 scripture gives but very little light into anything of 
 the Devil's story before his fall, and but to very little 
 of it for some time after. 
 
 Nor has Mr. Milton said one word to solve the main 
 difficulty; namely, How the Devil came to fall, and 
 how sin came into heaven ? How the spotless seraphic 
 nature could receive infection ? Whence the contagion 
 proceeded ? What noxious matter could emit corrup- 
 tion there ? How and whence any vapor to poison the 
 angelic frame could rise up, or how it increased and 
 grew up to crime? But all this he passes over, and, 
 hurrying up that part in two or three words, only 
 tells us, 
 
 His pride 
 
 Had cast him out of heaven, with all his host 
 
 Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring, 
 
 He trusted to have equalled the Most High." 
 
 Lib. i. fol. 3. 
 
 His pride ! but how came Satan, while an archangel, 
 to be proud ? How did it consist, that pride and perfect 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 57 
 
 holiness should meet in the same person ? Here we 
 must bid Mr. Milton good night ; for, in plain terms, 
 he is in the dark about it, and so we are all ; and the 
 most than can be said, is, that we know the fact is so, 
 but nothing of the nature or reason of it. 
 
 But to come to the history. The angels fell, they 
 sinned (wonderful !) in heaven, and God cast them 
 out : what their sin was, is not explicit ; but in gen- 
 eral it is called a rebellion against God ; all sin must 
 be so. 
 
 Mr. Milton here takes upon him to give the history 
 of it, as particularly as 'if he had been born there, and 
 came down hither on purpose to give us an account 
 of it ; (I hope he is better informed by this time;) but 
 this he does in such a manner, as jostles with religion, 
 and shocks our faith in so many points, necessary to 
 be believed, that we must forbear to give up to Mr. 
 Milton, or must set aside part of the sacred text, in 
 such a manner as will assist some people to set it all 
 aside. 
 
 I mean by this, his invented scheme of the Son's 
 being declared in heaven to be begotten then, and then 
 to be declared generalissimo of all the armies of 
 heaven ; and of the Father's summoning all the angels 
 of the heavenly host to submit to him, and pay him 
 homage. The words are quoted already in a former 
 page. 
 
 I must own the invention, indeed, is very fine ; the 
 images exceeding magnificent, the thought rich and 
 bright, and, in some respect, truly sublime : but the 
 authorities fail most wretchedly, and the mis-timing 
 of it is unsufferably gross, as is noted in the introduc- 
 tion to this work; for Christ is not declared the Son 
 of God but on earth : it is true, it is spoken from 
 heaven, but then it is spoken as perfected on earth ; if 
 it was at all to be assigned to heaven, it was from 
 eternity; and there, indeed, his eternal generation is 
 allowed; but to take upon us to say, that on a day, a 
 certain day, for so our poet assumes, (lib. v. fol. 138.) 
 
 " When on a day, 
 
 -On such a day, 
 
 As heaven's great year brings forth, the empyreal host 
 Of angels, by imperial summons called, 
 Forthwith from all the ends of heaven appeared." 
 
58 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 This is, indeed, too gross ; at this meeting he makes 
 God declare the Son to be that day begotten, as before. 
 Had he made him not begotten that day, but declared 
 general that day, it would be reconcilable with scrip- 
 ture, and with sense ; for either the begetting is meant 
 of ordaining to an office, or else the eternal generation 
 falls to the ground ; and if it was to the office, (medi- 
 ator,) then Mr. Milton is out in ascribing another fixed 
 day to the work; (see lib. x. fol. 194.) But then the 
 declaring him that day, is wrong chronology too ; for 
 Christ is declared the Son of God with power, only by 
 the resurrection of the dead ; and this is both a declar- 
 ation in heaven, and in earth, (Rom. i. 4.) And Mil- 
 ton can have no authority to tell us, there was any 
 declaration of it in heaven before this, except it be 
 that dull authority called poetic license, which will 
 not pass in so solemn an affair as that. 
 
 But the thing was necessary to Milton, who wanted 
 to assign some cause or original of the Devil's rebel- 
 lion ; and so, as I said above, the design is well laid ; 
 it only wants two trifles, called truth and history ; so I 
 leave it to struggle for itself. 
 
 This ground-plot being laid, he has a fai'r field for 
 the Devil to play the rebel in ; for he immediately 
 brings him in, not satisfied with the exaltation of the 
 Son of God. The case must be thus : Satan, being an 
 eminent archangel, and perhaps the highest of all the 
 angelic train, hearing this sovereign declaration, that 
 the Son of God was declared to be head or general- 
 issimo of all the heavenly host, took it ill to see 
 another put into the high station over his head, as the 
 soldiers call it ; he, perhaps, thinking himself the 
 senior officer, and disdaining to submit to any but to 
 his former immediate sovereign ; in short, he threw up 
 his commission, and, in order not to be compelled to 
 obey, revolted, and broke out in open rebellion. 
 
 All this part is a decoration noble and great, nor is 
 there any objection to be made against the invention, 
 because a deduction of probable events; but the plot 
 is wrong laid, as is observed above, because contra- 
 dicted by the scripture account, according to which 
 Christ was declared in heaven, not then, but from 
 eternity, and not declared with power, but on earth ; 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 59 
 
 namely, in his victory over sin and death, by the 
 resurrection from the dead : so that Mr. Milton is not 
 orthodox in this part ; but lays an avowed foundation 
 for the corrupt doctrine of Arius, which says, there 
 was a time when Christ was not the Son of God. 
 
 But to leave Mr. Milton to his flights, I agree with 
 him in this part; namely, that the wicked or sinning 
 angels, with the great archangel at the head of them, 
 revolted from their obedience, even in heaven itself; 
 that Satan began the wicked defection, and, being a 
 chief among the heavenly host, consequently carried 
 over a great party with him, who all together rebelled 
 against God ; that upon this rebellion they were sen- 
 tenced by the righteous judgment of God, to be ex- 
 pelled the holy habitation: this, besides the authority 
 of scripture, we have visible testimonies of, from the 
 devils themselves ; their influences and operations 
 among us every day, of which mankind are witnesses ; 
 in all the merry things they do in his name, and under 
 his protection, in almost every scene of life they pass 
 through, whether we talk of things done openly, or in 
 masquerade, things done in earnest or in jest. 
 
 But then, what comes of the long and bloody war 
 that Mr. Milton gives such a full and particular account 
 of, and the terrible battles in heaven between Michael 
 with the royal army of angels on one hand, and Satan 
 with his rebel host on the other; in which he supposes 
 the numbers and strength to be pretty near equal ? But 
 at length brings in the Devil's army, upon doubling 
 their rage, arrd bringing new engines of war into the 
 field, putting Michael and all the faithful army to the 
 worst ; and, in a word, defeats them ? For though 
 they were not put to a plain flight, in which case he 
 must, at least, have given an account of two or three 
 thousand millions of angels cut in pieces and wounded, 
 yet he allows them to give over the fight, and make a 
 kind of retreat ; so making way for the complete vic- 
 tory of the Son of God. Now this is all invention, or, 
 at least, a borrowed thought from the old poets, and 
 the fight of the giants against Jupiter, so nobly designed 
 by Ovid, almost two thousand years ago : and there it 
 was well enough ; but whether poetic fancy should be 
 allowed to fable upon heaven, or no, and upon the 
 King of Heaven too, that I leave to the sages. 
 
60 THE HISTOKY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 By this expulsion of the devils, it is allowed hy most 
 authors, they are, ipso facto, stript of the rectitude and 
 holiness of their nature, which was their beauty and 
 perfection ; and being ingulfed in the abyss of irrecov- 
 erable ruin, it is no matter where, from that very time 
 they lost their angelic beautiful form, commenced ugly 
 frightful monsters and devils, and became evil doers, 
 as well as evil spirits; filled with an horrid malignity 
 and enmity against their Maker, and armed with an 
 hellish resolution to show and exert it on all occasions ; 
 retaining however their exalted, spirituous nature, and 
 having a vast extensive power of action, all which 
 they can exert in nothing else but doing evil ; for they 
 are entirely divested of either power or will to do good ; 
 and, even in doing evil, they are under restraints and 
 limitations of a superior power, which it is their tor- 
 ment, and, perhaps, a great part of their hell, that they 
 cannot break through. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 What became of the Devil, and his host of fallen spir- 
 its, after their being expelled from heaven, and his 
 wandering condition till the creation ; with some more 
 of Mr. Milton's absurdities on that subject. 
 
 HAVING thus brought the Devil and his innumerable 
 legions to the edge of the bottomless pit, it remains, 
 before I bring them to action, that some inquiry should 
 be made into the posture of their affairs immediately 
 after their precipitate fall, and into the place of their 
 immediate residence ; for this will appear to be very 
 necessary to Satan's history, and, indeed, so as that, 
 without it, all the farther account we have to give of 
 him, will be inconsistent and imperfect. 
 
 And first, I take upon me to lay down some funda- 
 mentals, which I believe I shall be able to make out 
 historically, though, perhaps, not so geographically as 
 some have pretended to do. 
 
 1. That Satan was not immediately, nor is yet, 
 locked down in the abyss of a local hell, such as is 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 61 
 
 supposed by some, and such as he shall be at last ; or 
 that, 
 
 2. If he was, he has certain liberties allowed him 
 for excursions into the regions of this air, and certain 
 spheres of action, in which he can and does move, to 
 do. like a very devil as he is, all the mischief he can. 
 and of which we see so many examples both about us 
 and in us ; in the inquiry after which, I shall take 
 occasion to examine whether the Devil is not in most, 
 of us sometimes, if not in all of us one time or other. 
 
 3. That Satan has no particular residence in this 
 globe or earth where we live ; that he rambles about 
 among us, and marches over and over our whole 
 country, he and his devils, in camps volant ; but that 
 he pitches his grand army, or chief encampment, in 
 our adjacencies or frontiers, which the philosophers 
 call atmosphere ; and whence he is called the prince 
 of the power of that element or part of the world we 
 call air ; from whence he sends out his spies, his 
 agents and emissaries, to get intelligence, and to carry 
 his commissions to his trusty and well-beloved cousins 
 and counsellors on earth, by which his business is 
 done, and his affairs carried on, in the world. 
 
 Here, again, I meet Mr. Milton, full in my face, who 
 will have it that the Devil, immediately at his expul- 
 sion, rolled down directly into hell proper and local ; 
 nay, he measures the very distance, at least gives the 
 length of the journey by the time they were passing or 
 falling, which, he says, was nine days; a good poetical 
 flight, but neither founded on scripture or philosophy. 
 He might every jot as well have brought hell up to 
 the walls of heaven, advanced to receive them ; or he 
 ought to have considered the space which is to be 
 allowed to any locality, let him take what part of 
 infinite distance between heaven and created hell he 
 pleases. 
 
 But let that be as Mr. Milton's extraordinary genius 
 pleases to place it; the passage, it seems, is just nine 
 days betwixt heaven and hell ; well might Dives then 
 see father Abraham, and talk to him too; but then the 
 great gulf, which Abraham tells him was fixed between 
 them, does not seem to be so large, as, according to 
 6 
 
62 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Halley, Mr. Whiston, and the 
 rest of our men of science, we take it to be. 
 
 But suppose the passage to he nine days, according 
 to Mr. Milton, what followed? Why, hell gaped wide, 
 opened its frightful mouth, and received them all at 
 once ; millions and thousands of millions as they were, 
 it received them all at a gulp, as we call it ; they had 
 no difficulty to go in, no, none at all. 
 
 " Facilis descensus Averni : 
 
 Sed revocare gradum 
 
 Hoc opus, hie labor est." Virg. 
 
 All this, as poetical, we may receive, but not at all 
 as historical ; for then come difficulties insuperable in 
 our way; some of which may be as follow: 1. Hell 
 is here supposed to be a place; nay, a place created for 
 the punishment of angels and men, and likewise cre- 
 ated long before those had fallen, or these had being : 
 this makes me say, Mr. Milton was a good poet, but 
 a bad historian : Tophet was prepared of old, indeed ; 
 but it was for the king, that is to say, it was prepared 
 for those whose lot it should be to come thither ; but 
 this does not at all suppose it was prepared before it 
 was resolved whether there should be subjects for it, 
 or no ; else we must suppose both men and angels 
 were made by the glorious and upright Maker of all 
 things, on purpose for destruction, which would be 
 incongruous and absurd. 
 
 But there is worse yet to come : in the next place 
 he adds, that hell having received them, closed upon 
 them ; that is to say, took them in, closed or shut its 
 mouth; and in a word, they were locked in, as it was 
 said in another place, they were locked in, and the 
 key is carried up to heaven, and kept there ; for we 
 know the angel came down from heaven, having the 
 key of the bottomless pit ; but first, see Mr. Milton : 
 
 " Nine days they fell : confounded chaos roared, 
 And felt tenfold confusion in their fall : 
 
 . Hell at last 
 
 Yawning received them whole, and on them closed ; 
 Down from the verge of heaven, eternal wrath 
 Burnt after them 
 Unquenchable." 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 This scheme is certainly deficient, if not absurd ; 
 and I think is more so than any other he has laid : it 
 is evident, neither Satan, or his host of devils, are, no 
 not any of them, yet, even now, confined in the eternal 
 prison, where, the scripture says, he shall be reserved 
 in chains of darkness. They must have mean thoughts 
 of hell, as a prison, a local confinement, that can 
 suppose the Devil able to break gaol, knock off his 
 fetters, and come abroad, if he had been once locked 
 in there, as Mr. Milton says he was : now we know, 
 that he is abroad again ; he presented himself before 
 God, among his neighbors, when Job's case came to 
 be discoursed of; and, more than that, it is plain he 
 was a prisoner at large, by his answer to God's ques- 
 tion, which was, Whence comest thou? to which he 
 answered, From going to and fro through the earth, 
 &c. This, I say, is plain ; and if it be as certain, that 
 hell closed upon them, I demand then, how got he 
 out? And why was there not a proclamation for 
 apprehending him, as there usually is, after such 
 rogues as break prison ? 
 
 In short, the true account of the Devil's circum- 
 stances, since his fall from heaven, is much more 
 likely to be thus : That he is more of a vagrant than 
 a prisoner ; that he is a wanderer in the wild unbounded 
 waste, where he and his legions, like the hordes of 
 Tartary, who, in the wild countries of Karakathay, 
 the deserts of Barkan, Kassan, and Astracan, live up 
 and down where they find proper ; so Satan and his 
 innumerable legions rove about hie et ubique, pitch- 
 ing their camps (being beasts of prey) where they find 
 the most spoil ; watching over this world (and all the 
 other worlds, for aught we know, and if there are any 
 such;) I say watching and seeking whom they may 
 devour, that is, whom they may deceive and delude, 
 and so destroy, for devour they cannot. 
 
 Satan, being thus confined to a vagabond, wander- 
 ing, unsettled condition, is without any certain abode ; 
 for though he has, in consequence of his angelic nature, 
 a kind of empire in the liquid waste of air; yet this is 
 certainly part of his punishment, that he is continually 
 hovering over this inhabited globe of earth; swelling 
 with the rage of envy at the felicity of his rival man ; 
 
64 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 and studying all the means possible to injure and ruin 
 him; but extremely limited in power, to his unspeak- 
 able mortification: this is his present state, without 
 any fixed abode, place, or space, allowed him to rest 
 the sole of his foot upon. 
 
 From his expulsion, I take his first view of horror 
 to be that of looking back towards the heaven which 
 he had lost; there to see the chasm or opening made 
 up, out at which, as at a breach in the wall of the 
 holy place, he was thrust headlong by the power which 
 expelled him ; I say, to see the breach repaired, the 
 mounds built up, the walls garrisoned with millions 
 of angels, and armed with thunders; and above all, 
 made terrible by that glory from whose presence they 
 were expelled, as is poetically hinted at before. 
 
 Upon this sight, it is no wonder (if there was such 
 a place) that they fled till the darkness might cover 
 them, and that they might be out of the view of so 
 hated a sight. 
 
 Wherever they found it, you may be sure they 
 pitched their first camp ; and began, after many a sour 
 reflection upon what was passed, to consider arid think 
 a little upon what was to come. 
 
 If I had as much personal acquaintance with the 
 Devil, as would admit it, and could depend upon the 
 truth of what answer he would give me, the first 
 question I would ask him, should be, what measures 
 they resolved on at their first assembly? And the next 
 should be, how they were employed in all that space 
 of time, between their so flying the face of their 
 almighty Conqueror, and the creation of man? As for 
 the length of the time, which, according to the learned, 
 was twenty thousand years, and, according to the 
 more learned, not half a quarter so much, I would not 
 concern my curiosity much about it ; it is most cer- 
 tain, there was a considerable time between ; but of 
 that immediately : first let me inquire what they were 
 doing all that time. 
 
 The Devil and his host being thus, I say, cast out 
 of heaven, and not yet confined strictly to hell, it is 
 plain they must be somewhere; Satan and all his 
 legions did not lose their existence, no, nor the exist- 
 ence of devils neither ; God was so far from annihil- 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 65 
 
 ating him, that he still preserved his being; and this 
 not Mr. Milton only, but God himself, has made 
 known to us, having left his history so far upon record : 
 several expressions in scripture also make it evident, 
 as particularly the story of Job, mentioned before ; the 
 like in our Saviour's time, and several others. 
 
 If hell did not immediately engulf them, as Milton 
 suggests, it is certain, I say, that they fled somewhere, 
 from the anger of Heaven, from the face of the 
 Avenger; and his absence, and their own guilt, won- 
 der not at it, would make hell enough for them, wher- 
 ever they went. 
 
 Nor need we fly to the dreams of our astronomers, 
 who took a great deal of pains to fill up the vast 
 spaces of the starry heavens with innumerable habit- 
 able worlds : allowing as many solar systems as there 
 are fixed stars, and that not only in the known con- 
 stellations, but even in the galaxy itself; who to every 
 such system allow a certain number of planets, and to 
 every one of those planets so many satellites or moons, 
 and all these planets or moons to be worlds; solid, 
 dark, opaque bodies, habitable, and (as they would 
 have us believe) inhabited by the like animals and 
 rational creatures as on this earth ; so that they may, 
 at this rate, find room enough for the Devil and all 
 his angels, without making an hell on purpose ; nay, 
 they may, for aught I know, find a world for every 
 devil in all the Devil's host ; and so every one may be 
 a monarch or master-devil, separately in his own 
 sphere or world, and play the devil there by himself. 
 
 And even if this were so, it cannot be denied but 
 that one devil in a place would be enough for a whole 
 systemary world, and be able, if not restrained, to do 
 mischief enough there too, and even to ruin and over- 
 throw the whole body of people contained in it, 
 
 But, I say, we need not fly to these shifts, or con- 
 sult the astronomers in the decision of this point ; for 
 wherever Satan and his defeated host went, at their 
 expulsion from heaven, we think we are certain none 
 of all these beautiful worlds, or be they worlds or no, 
 I mean the fixed stars, planets, &c. had then any 
 existence ; for the beginning, as the scripture calls it, 
 was not yet begun. 
 
66 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 But to speak a little by the rules of philosophy, that 
 is to say, so as to be understood by others, even when 
 we speak of things we cannot fully understand our- 
 selves : though in the beginning of time, all this glo- 
 rious creation was formed, the earth, the starry hea- 
 vens, and all the furniture thereof, and there was a 
 time when they were not ; yet we cannot say so of 
 the void, or that nameless nowhere, as I called it 
 before, which now appears to be a somewhere, in 
 which these glorious bodies are placed. That immense 
 space which those take up, and which they move in 
 at this time, must be supposed, before they had being, 
 to be placed there ; as God himself was, and existed, 
 before all being, time, or place ; so the heaven of 
 heavens, or the place where the thrones and domin- 
 ions of his kingdom then existed, inconceivable and 
 ineffable, had an existence before the glorious seraphs, 
 the innumerable company of angels which attended 
 about the throne of God, existed ; these all had a being 
 long before, as the eternal creator of them all had 
 before them. 
 
 Into this void or abyss of nothing, however im- 
 measurable, infinite, and even to those spirits them- 
 selves inconceivable, they certainly launched from the 
 bright precipice which they fell from, and here they 
 shifted as well as they could. 
 
 Here expanding those wings which fear and horror 
 at their defeat furnished them, as I hinted before, they 
 hurried away to the utmost distance possible, from the 
 face of God their conqueror, and then most dreaded 
 enemy ; formerly their joy and glory. 
 
 Be this utmost removed distance where it will, here, 
 certainly, Satan and all his gang of devils, his num- 
 berless, though routed armies, retired. Here Milton 
 might, with some good ground, have formed his pande- 
 monium, and have brought them in, consulting what 
 was next to be done, and whether there was any room 
 left to renew the war, or to carry on the rebellion ; but 
 had they been cast immediately into hell, closed up 
 there, the bottomless pit locked upon them, and the 
 key carried up to heaven, to be kept there, as Mr. 
 Milton himself in part confesses, and the scripture 
 affirms ; I say, had this been so, the Devil himself 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 67 
 
 could not have been so ignorant as to think of any 
 future steps to be taken, to retrieve his affairs; and 
 therefore a pandemonium, or divan in hell, to consult 
 of it, was ridiculous. 
 
 All Mr. Milton's scheme of Satan's future conduct, 
 and all the scripture expressions about the Devil and 
 his numerous attendants, and of his actings since that 
 time, make it not reasonable to suggest, that the devils 
 were confined to their eternal prison, at their expul- 
 sion out of heaven ; but that they were in a state of 
 liberty to act, though limited in acting, of which I 
 shall also speak in its place. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Of the number of Satan? s host. How they came first 
 to know of the new-created worlds now in being ; and 
 their measures with makind upon the discovery. 
 
 SEVERAL things have been suggested to set us a cal- 
 culating the number of this frightful throng of devils, 
 who with Satan, the master-devil, was thus cast out 
 of heaven. I cannot say I am so much master of 
 political arithmetic, as to cast up the number of the 
 beast, no, nor the number of the beasts or devils, who 
 make up this throng. St. Francis, they tell us, or 
 some other saint, they do not say who, asked the 
 Devil once, how strong he was? for St. Francis, you 
 must know, was very familiar with him : the Devil, it 
 seems, did not tell him ; but presently raised a great 
 cloud of dust, by the help, I suppose, of a gust of wind, 
 and bid that saint count it : he was, I suppose, a calcu- 
 lator, that would be called grave, who, dividing Satan's 
 troops into three lines, cast up the number of the devils 
 of all sorts in each battalia, at ten hundred times a hun- 
 dred thousand millions of the first line, fifty millions 
 of times as many in the second line, and three hundred 
 thousand times as many as both in the third line. 
 
 The impertinence of this account would hardly have 
 given it a place here, only to hint, that it has always 
 been the opinion, that Satan's name may well be 
 called a noun of multitude, and that the Devil and his 
 
68 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 angels are certainly no inconsiderable number. It was 
 a smart repartee that a Venetian nobleman made to a 
 priest, who rallied him upon his refusing to give some- 
 thing to the church, which the priest demanded for the 
 delivering him from purgatory ; when the priest asking 
 him, "if he knew what an innumerable number of 
 devils there were to take him?" he answered. " yes, 
 he knew how many devils there were in all." " How 
 many ?" says the priest ; his curiosity, I suppose being 
 raised by the novelty of the answer. "Why, ten mil- 
 lions five hundred and eleven thousand six hundred 
 and seventy-five devils and an half," says the noble- 
 man. " An half," says the priest, " pray what kind 
 of a devil is that ?" " Yourself," says the nobleman ; 
 " for you are half a devil already, (and will be a whole 
 one when you come there;) for you are for deluding 
 all you deal with, and bringing us soul and body 
 into your hands, that you may be paid for letting us go 
 again." So much for their number. 
 
 Here also it would come in very aptly, to consider 
 the state of that long interval between the time of their 
 expulsion from heaven, and the creation of the world ; 
 and what the posture of the Devil's affairs might be, 
 during that time. The horror of their condition can 
 only be conceived of at a distance, and especially by 
 us, who, being embodied creatures, cannot fully judge 
 of what is, or is not, a punishment to seraphs and 
 spirits; but it is just to suppose they suffered all that 
 spirits of a seraphic nature were capable to sustain, 
 consistent with their existence ; notwithstanding which 
 they retained still the hellishness of their rebellious 
 principles ; namely, their hatred and rage against God, 
 and their envy at the felicity of his creatures. 
 
 As to how long their time might be, I shall leave 
 that search, no lights being given me that are either 
 probable or rational; and we have so little room 
 to make a judgment of it, that we may as well believe 
 Falher M , who supposes it to be an hundred thou- 
 sand years, as those who judge it one thousand years ; 
 it is enough that we are sure, it was before the creation, 
 how long before is not material to the Devil's history, 
 unless we had some records of what happened to him, 
 or was done by him, in the interval. 
 
 During the wandering condition the Devil was in at 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 69 
 
 that time, we may suppose him and his whole clan 
 to be employed in exerting their hatred and rage at 
 the Almighty, and at the happiness of the remaining 
 faithful angels, by all the ways they had power to 
 show it. 
 
 From this determined stated enmity of Satan and 
 his host against God, and at everything that brought 
 glory to his name, Mr. Milton brings in Satan, (when 
 first he saw Adam in Paradise, and the felicity of his 
 station there,) swelling with rage and envy, and taking 
 up a dreadful resolution to ruin Adam and all his 
 posterity, merely to disappoint his Maker of the glory 
 of his creation. I shall come to speak of that in its 
 place. 
 
 How Satan, in his remote situation, got intelligence 
 of the place where to find Adam out, or that any such 
 thing as a man was created, is matter of just specula- 
 tion, and there might be many rational schemes laid 
 for it. Mr. Milton does not undertake to tell us the 
 particulars, nor indeed could he find room for it ; per- 
 haps, the Devil, having, as I have said, a liberty to 
 range over the whole void or abyss, which we want as 
 well a name for, as indeed powers to conceive of, might 
 have discovered, that the Almighty creator had formed 
 a new and glorious work, with infinite beauty and 
 variety, filling up the immense waste of space, in 
 which he, (the Devil,) and his angels, had roved for 
 so long a time, without finding anything to work on, 
 or to exert their apostate rage in against their Maker. 
 
 That at length they found the infinite untrodden 
 space on a sudden, spread full with glorious bodies, 
 shining in self-existing beauty, with a new and to them 
 unknown lustre, calted light. They found these lumi- 
 nous bodies, though immense in bulk, and infinite in 
 number, yet fixed in their wondrous stations regular 
 and exact in their motions, confined in their proper 
 orbits, tending to their particular centres, and enjoy- 
 ing every one their peculiar systems, within which 
 were contained innumerable planets, with their satel- 
 lites or moons, in which, again, a reciprocal influence, 
 motion, and revolution, conspired to form the most 
 admirable uniformity of the whole. 
 
 Surprised, to be sure, with this sudden and yet glorious 
 
70 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 work of the Almighty, (for the creation was enough, 
 with its lustre, even to surprise the Devils,) they might 
 reasonably be supposed to start out of their dark 
 retreat, and with a curiosity not below the seraphic 
 dignity (for these are some of the things which the 
 angels desire to look into) to take a flight through all 
 the amazing systems of the fixed suns or stars, which 
 we see now but at a distance, and only make astro- 
 nomical guesses at. 
 
 Here the Devil found not subject of wonder only, 
 but matter to swell his revolted spirit with more rage, 
 and to revive the malignity of his mind against his 
 Maker, and especially against this new increase of 
 glory, which to his infinite regret was extended over 
 the whole waste, and which he looked upon, as we 
 say in human affairs, as a pays conquis, or, if you will 
 have it in the language of the Devil, as an invasion 
 upon his kingdom. 
 
 Here it naturally occurred to them, in their state of 
 envy and rebellion, that though they could not assault 
 the impregnable walls of heaven, and could no more 
 pretend to raise war in the place of blessedness and 
 peace ; yet that perhaps they might find room in this 
 new, and however glorious, yet inferior kingdom or 
 creation, to work some despite to their great Creator, 
 or to affront his majesty in the person of some of his 
 new-made creatures ; and upon this they may be justly 
 supposed to double their vigilance, in the survey they 
 resolve to take of these new worlds, however great, 
 numberless, and wonderful. 
 
 What discoveries they may have made in the other 
 and greater worlds, than this earth, we have not yet 
 had an account : Possibly they are conversant with 
 other parts of God's creation, besides this little, little 
 globe, which is but as a point in comparison of the 
 rest ; and with other of God's creatures besides man, 
 who may, according to the opinion of our philoso- 
 phers, inhabit those worlds ; but as nobody knows 
 that part but the Devil, we shall not trouble ourselves 
 with the inquiry. 
 
 But it is very reasonable, and indeed probable, that 
 the Devils were more than ordinarily surprised at the 
 nature and reason of all this glorious creation, after 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 71 
 
 % 
 
 they bad, with the utmost curiosity, viewed all the 
 parts of it. The glories of the several systems ; the 
 immense spaces in which those glorious bodies that 
 were created, and made part of it, were allowed re- 
 spectively to move ; the innumerable fixed stars, as so 
 many suns in the centre of so many distant solar sys- 
 tems ; the (likewise innumerable) dark opaque bodies 
 receiving light, and depending upon those suns respec- 
 tively for such light, and then reflecting that light 
 again upon, and for the use of, one another. To see 
 the beauty and splendor of their forms, the regularity 
 of their position, the order and exactness, and yet 
 inconceivable velocity, of their motions, the certainty 
 of their revolutions, and the variety and virtue of their 
 influences; and then, which was even to the Devils 
 themselves most astonishing, that after all the rest of 
 their observations they should find this whole immense 
 work was adapted for. and made subservient to, the 
 use, delight, and blessing, only of one poor species, in 
 itself small, and in appearance contemptible ; the 
 meanest of all the kinds supposed to inhabit so many 
 glorious worlds, as appeared now to be formed ; I 
 mean, that moon called the earth, and the creature 
 called man ; that all was made for him, upheld by the 
 wise Creator, on his account only; and would neces- 
 sarily end and cease whenever that species should end, 
 and be determined. 
 
 That this creature was to be found nowhere but (as 
 above) in one little individual moon; a spot less than 
 almost any of the moons, which were in such great 
 numbers to be found attendant upon, and prescribed 
 within, every system of the whole created Heavens: 
 this was astonishing even to the Devil himself; nay, 
 the whole clan of devils could scarce entertain any 
 jnst ideas of the thing ; till at last Satan, indefatigable 
 in his search or inquiry into the nature and reason of 
 this new work, and particularly searching into the 
 species of man, whom he found God had thus placed 
 in the little globe, called earth; he soon came to an 
 eclair cissement, or a clear understanding of the whole. 
 For example : 
 
 1. He found tl^is creature, called man, was, how- 
 pver mean and small in his appearance, a kind of a 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 seraphic species : that he was made in the very image 
 of God, endowed with reasonable faculties to know 
 good and evil, and possessed of a certain thing till 
 then unknown and unheard of even in hell itself; that 
 is, in the habitation of devils, let that be where it 
 would; namely, 
 
 2. That God had made him indeed of the lowest 
 and coarsest materials ; but that he had breathed into 
 him the breath of life, and that he became a living 
 thing called Soul, being a kind of an extraordinary 
 heavenly and divine emanation ; and consequently 
 that man, however mean and terrestrial his body 
 might be, was yet heaven-born, in his spirituous part 
 completely seraphic ; and after a space of life here, 
 (determined to be a state of probation,) he should be 
 translated through the regions of death into a life 
 purely and truly heavenly, and which should remain 
 so forever : being capable of knowing and en joy ing- 
 God, his Maker, and standing in his presence, as the 
 glorified angels do. 
 
 3. That he had the most sublime faculties infused 
 into him ; was capable not only of knowing and con- 
 templating God, and, which was still more, of enjoying 
 him, as above ; but (which the Devil now was not,) 
 capable of honoring and glorifying his Maker; who 
 also had condescended to accept of honor from him. 
 
 4. And, which was still more, that, being of an an- 
 gelic nature, though mixed with, and confined for the 
 present in, a case of mortal flesh, he was intended to be 
 removed from this earth after a certain time of life 
 here, to inhabit that heaven, and enjoy that very glory 
 and felicity, from which Satan and his angels had 
 been expelled. 
 
 When he found all this, it presently occurred to him, 
 that God had done it all as an act of triumph over 
 him, (Satan ;) and that these creatures were only cre- 
 ated to people heaven, depopulated or stript of its 
 inhabitants by his expulsion ; and that these were all 
 to be made angels in the devils' stead. 
 
 If this thought increased his fury and envy, as far 
 as rage of devils can be capable of being made greater ; 
 it doubtless set him on work to give a vent to that 
 rage and envy, by searching into the nature and con- 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 73 
 
 stitution of this creature, called man ; and to find out 
 whether he was invulnerable, and could by no means 
 be hurt by the power of hell, or deluded by his subtil- 
 ty ; or whether he might be beguiled and deluded ; 
 and so, instead of being preserved in holiness and 
 purity, wherein he was certainly created, be brought 
 to fall and rebel, as he (Satan) had done before him ; 
 by which, instead of being transplanted into a glorious 
 state, after this life, in heaven, as his Maker had 
 designed him to be, to fill up the angelic choir, and 
 supply the place, from whence he (Satan) had fallen, 
 he might be made to fall also like him, and, in a word, 
 be made a devil like himself. 
 
 This convinces us, that the Devil has not lost his 
 natural powers by his fall ; and our learned commen- 
 tator, Mr. Pool, is of the same opinion ; though he 
 grants, that the Devil has lost his moral power, or his 
 power of doing good, which he can never recover. 
 Vide Mr. Pool upon Acts xix. 16, where we may par- 
 ticularly observe, when the man possessed with an 
 evil spirit flew upon the seven sons of Sceva, the Jew, 
 who would have exorcised them in the name of Jesus, 
 without the authority of Jesus, or without faith in 
 him, he flew on them, and mastered them, so that they 
 fled out of the house from the Devil, conquered, naked, 
 arid wounded. But of this power of the Devil I shall 
 speak by itself. 
 
 In a word, and to sum up all the Devil's story from 
 his first expulsion, it stands thus : For so many years 
 as were between his fall and the creation of man, 
 though we have no memoirs of his particular affairs, 
 we have reason to believe he was without any manner 
 of employment ; but a certain tormenting endeavor to 
 be always expressing his rage and enmity against 
 heaven ; I call it tormenting, because ever disap- 
 pointed ; every thought about it proving empty; every 
 attempt towards it abortive ; leaving him only light 
 enough to see still more and more reason to despair of 
 success ; and that this made his condition still more 
 and more an hell than it was before. 
 
 After a space of duration in this misery, which we 
 have no light given us to measure, or judge of, he at 
 length discovered the new creation of man, as above ; 
 
74 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 upon which he soon found matter to set himself to 
 work, and has been busily employed ever since. 
 
 And now indeed there may be room to suggest a 
 local hell, and the confinement of souls (made corrupt 
 and degenerate by him) to it, as a, place ; though he 
 himself, as is still apparent by his actings, is not yet 
 con&ned to it. Of this hell, its locality, extent, dimen- 
 sions, continuance, and nature, as it does not belong 
 to Satan's history, I have a good excuse for saying 
 nothing, and so put off my meddling with that, which 
 if I would meddle with, I could say nothing of to the 
 purpose. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of the power of the Demi at the time of the creation of 
 this world; whether it has not been farther strait- 
 ened and limited since that time ; and what shifts 
 and stratagems he is obliged to make use of to com- 
 pass his designs upon mankind. 
 
 CUNNING men have fabled, and though it be without 
 either religion, authority, or physical foundation, it 
 may be we may like it never the worse for that; that 
 when God made the stars, and all the heavenly lumi- 
 naries, the Devil, to mimic his Maker, and insult his 
 new creation, made comets, in imitation of the fixed 
 stars ; but that the composition of them being combus- 
 tible, when they came to wander in the abyss, rolling 
 by an irregular ill-grounded motion, they took fire, in 
 their approach to some of those great bodies of flame, 
 the fixed stars; and being thus kindled (like a fire- 
 work unskilfully let off) they then took wild and 
 eccentric, as also different motions of their own, out 
 of Satan's direction, and beyond his power to regulate 
 ever after. 
 
 Let this thought stand by itself, it matters not to pur 
 purpose whether we believe anything of it, or no; it is 
 enough to our case, that if Satan had any such power 
 then, he has no such power now ; and that leads me 
 to inquire into his more recent limitations. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 rs 
 
 I am to suppose, he and all his accomplices, being 
 confounded at the discovery of the new creation, and 
 racking their wits to find out the meaning of it, had 
 at last (no matter how) discovered the whole system, 
 and concluded, as I have said, that the creature, called 
 man, was to be their successor in the heavenly man- 
 sions ; upon which I suggest, that the first motion of 
 hell was to destroy this new work, and, if possible, to 
 overwhelm it. 
 
 But when they came to make the attempt, they 
 found their chains were not long enough, and that they 
 could not reach the extremes of the systems. They 
 had no power either to break the order, or to stop the 
 motion, dislocate the parts, or confound the situation, 
 of things ; they traversed, no doubt, the whole work, 
 visited every star, landed upon every solid, and sailed 
 upon every fluid, in the whole scheme, to see what 
 mischief they could do. 
 
 Upon a long and full survey, they came to this point 
 in their inquiry, that, in short, they could do nothing 
 by force ; that they could riot displace any part, anni- 
 hilate any atom, or destroy any life, in the whole cre- 
 ation ; but that as omnipotence had created it f so the 
 same omnipotence had armed it at all points against 
 the utmost power of hell ; had made the smallest crea- 
 ture in it invulnerable, as to Satan ; so that without 
 the permission of the same power which had made 
 heaven, and conquered the Devil, he could do nothing 
 at all, as to destroying anything that God had made, 
 no, not the little diminutive thing called man, whom 
 Satan saw so much reason to hate, as being created to 
 succeed him in happiness in heaven. 
 
 Satan found him placed out of his power to hurt, or 
 out of his reach to touch. And here, by the way, 
 appears the second conquest of heaven over the Devil ; 
 that having placed his rival, as it were, just before his 
 face, and showed the hateful sight to him, he saw 
 written upon his image, touch him if you dare. 
 
 It cannot be doubted, but, had it not been thus, man 
 is so far from being a match for the Devil, that one of 
 Satan's least imps or angels could destroy all the race 
 of them in the world, ay, world and all, in a moment. 
 
 As he is prince of the power of the air, taking the 
 
76 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 air for the elementary world, how easily could he, at 
 one blast, sweep all the surface of the earth into the 
 sea; or drive weighty immense surges of the ocean 
 over the whole plain of the earth, and deluge the globe 
 at once with a storm ! Or how easily could he, who, 
 by the situation of the empire, must be supposed able 
 to manage the clouds, draw them up in such position 
 as should naturally produce thunders and lightnings, 
 cause those lightnings to blast the earth, dash in pieces 
 all the buildings, burn all the populous towns and 
 cities, and lay waste the world ! 
 
 At the same time he might command suited quanti- 
 ties of sublimated air to burst out of the bowels of the 
 earth, and overwhelm and swallow up, in the opening 
 chasms, all the inhabitants of the globe. 
 
 In a word, Satan left to himself as a devil, and to 
 the power which by virtue of his seraphic original he 
 must be vested with, was able to have made devilish 
 work in the world, if by a superior power he was not 
 restrained. 
 
 But there is no doubt, at least to me, but that with 
 his fall from heaven, as he lost the rectitude and glory 
 of his ajigelic nature. I mean his innocence, so he lost 
 the power too that he had before ; and that when he 
 first commenced devil, he received the chains of 
 restraint too, as the badge of his apostasy; namely, a 
 general prohibition to do anything to the prejudice of 
 this creation, or to act anything by force or violence 
 without special permission. 
 
 This prohibition was not sent him by a messenger, 
 or by an order in writing, or proclaimed from heaven 
 by a law ; but Satan, by a strange, invisible and 
 unaccountable impression, felt the restraint within 
 him ; and at the same time that his moral capacity 
 was not taken away, yet his power of exerting that 
 capacity felt the restraint, and left him unable to do, 
 even what he was able to do at the same time. 
 
 I make no question but the Devil is sensible of this 
 restraint; that is to say, not as it is a restraint only, or 
 as an effect of his expulsion from heaven ; but as it 
 prevents his capital design against man, whom, for the 
 reason I have given already, he entertains a mortal 
 hatred of, and would destroy with all his heart if he 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 77 
 
 might ; and therefore, like a chained mastiff, we find 
 him oftentimes making an horrid hellish clamor and 
 noise, barking and howling, and frightening the people, 
 letting them know, that, if he was loose, he would 
 tear them in pieces ; but at the same time his very 
 fury shakes his chain, which lets them know, to their 
 satisfaction, he can only bark, but cannot bite. 
 
 Some are of opinion, that the Devil is not restrained 
 so much by the superior power of his Sovereign and 
 Maker ; but that all his milder measures with man are 
 the effect of a political scheme, and done upon mature 
 deliberation ; that it was resolved to act thus, in the 
 great council of devils, called upon this very occasion, 
 when they first were informed of the creation of man ; 
 and especially when they considered what kind of 
 creature he was, and what might probably be the rea- 
 son of making him ; namely, to fill up the vacancies 
 in heaven ; I say, that then the devils resolved, that 
 it was not for their interest to fall upon him with fury 
 and rage, and so destroy the species, for that this 
 would be no benefit at all to them, and would only 
 cause another original man to be created ; for that they 
 knew God could, by the same omnipotence, form as 
 many new species of creatures as he pleased ; and, if 
 he thought fit, create them in heaven too, out of the 
 reach of devils, or evil spirits ; and that, therefore, to 
 destroy man would no way answer their end. 
 
 On the other hand, examining strictly the mould of 
 this new made creature, and of what materials he was 
 formed ; how mixed up of a nature convertible and 
 pervertible ; capable indeed of infinite excellence, and 
 consequently of eternal felicity ; but subject, likewise, 
 to corruption and degeneracy, and, consequently, to 
 eternal misery ; that, instead of being fit to supply the 
 places of Satan and his rejected tribe (the expelled 
 angels) in heaven, and filling up the thrones or stalls 
 in the celestial choir, they might, if they could but be 
 brought into crime, become a race of rebels and trait- 
 ors like the rest ; and so come at last to keep them 
 company, as well in the place of eternal misery as in 
 the merit of it, and, in a word, become devils instead 
 of angels ; 
 
 Upon this discovery, I say, they found it infinitely 
 
78 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 more for the interest of Satan's infernal kingdom, to 
 go another way to work with mankind, and see if it 
 were possible, by the strength of their infernal wit 
 and counsels, to lay some snare for him, and by some 
 stratagem to bring him to eternal ruin and misery. 
 
 This being then approved as their only method, (and 
 the Devil showed he was no fool in the choice,) he 
 next resolved, that there was no time to be lost ; that 
 it was to be set about immediately, before the race was 
 multiplied, and by that means the work be not made 
 greater only, but perhaps the more difficult too.- Ac- 
 cordingly the diligent Devil went instantly about it, 
 agreeably to all the story of Eve and the serpent, as 
 before ; the belief of which, whether historically or 
 allegorically, is not at all obstructed by this hypothesis. 
 
 1 do riot affirm that this was the case at first, because 
 being not present in that black divan, at least not that 
 I know of, (for who knows where he was, or was not, 
 in his preexistent state '?) I cannot be positive in the 
 resolve that passed there; but except for some very 
 little contradiction, which we find in the sacred writ- 
 ings, I should, I confess, incline to believe it histori- 
 cally; and I shall speak of those things which I call 
 contradictions to it more largely hereafter. 
 
 In the mean time, be it one way or other, that is to 
 say, either that Satan had no power to have proceeded 
 with man by violence, and to have destroyed him as 
 soon as he was made ; or that he had the power, but 
 chose rather to proceed by other methods to deceive 
 and debauoh him ; I say, be it which you please, I am 
 still of the opinion, that it really was not the Devil's 
 business to destroy the species; that it would have 
 been nothing to the purpose, and no advantage at all 
 to him, if he had done it ; for that, as above, God 
 could immediately have created another species to the 
 same end, whom he either could have made invulner- 
 able, and not subject to the Devil's power, or removed 
 him out of Satan's reach ; placed him out of the 
 Devil's ken, in heaven, or some other place, where the 
 Devil could not come to hurt him ; and that, therefore, 
 it is infinitely more his advantage, and more suited 
 to his real design of defeating the end of man's cre- 
 ation, to debauch him, and make a devil of him, that 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 79 
 
 he may be rejected like himself, and increase the infer- 
 nal kingdom and company in the lake of misery, in 
 ceternum. 
 
 It may be true, for aught I know, that Satan has not 
 the power of destruction put into his hand, and that he 
 cannot take away the life of a man : and it seems 
 probable to be so, from the story of Satan and Job, 
 when Satan appeared among the sons of God, as the 
 text says, (Job i. 6.) Now when God gave such a 
 character of Job to him, and asked him if he had con- 
 sidered his servant Job, (verse 8,) why did not the 
 Devil go immediately and exert his malice against the 
 good man at once, to let his Maker see what would 
 become of his servant Job in his distress ? On the 
 contrary, we see he only answers by showing the rea- 
 son of Job's good behavior; that it was but common 
 gratitude for the blessing and protection he enjoyed, 
 (verse 10,) and pleading that if his estate was taken 
 away, and he was exposed as he (Satan) was, to be a 
 beggar and a vagabond, going to and fro in the earth, 
 and walking up and down therein, he should be a 
 very devil too like himself, and curse God to his face. 
 
 Upon this, the text says that God answered, (verse 
 11,) " Behold, all that he hath is in thy power." Now 
 it is plain here, that God gave up Job's wealth and 
 estate, nay, his family, and the lives of his children 
 and servants, into the Devil's power; and accordingly, 
 like a true merciless devil, as he is, he destroyed them 
 all ; he moved the Sabeans to fall upon the oxen arid 
 the asses, and carry them off; he moved the Chaldeans 
 to fall upon the camels and the servants, to carry off 
 the first, and murder the last ; he made lightning flash 
 upon the poor sheep, and kill them all ; and he blowed 
 his house down upon his poor children, and buried 
 them all in the ruins. 
 
 Now here is a specimen of Satan's good will to 
 mankind, and what havoc the Devil would make in 
 the world, if he might ; and here is a testimony too, 
 that he could not do this without leave ; so that I can- 
 not but be of the opinion he has some limitations, 
 some bounds set to his natural fury ; a certain number 
 of links in his chain, which he cannot exceed, or, in a 
 word, that he cannot go a foot beyond his tether. 
 
80 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 The same kind of evidence we have in the gospel, 
 (Matt. viii. 31,) where Satan could not so much as 
 possess the filthiest and meanest of all creatures, the 
 swine, till he had asked leave ; and that still, to show 
 his good will, as soon- as he had gotten leave, he hur- 
 ried them all into the sea, and choked them ; these, I 
 say, are some of the reasons why I am not willing to 
 say, the Devil is not restrained in power. But, on the 
 other side, we are told of so many mischievous things 
 the Devil has done in the world, by virtue of his 
 dominion over the elements, and by other testimonies 
 of his power, that I do not know what to think of it ; 
 though, upon the whole, the first is the safest opinion ; 
 for if we should believe the last, we might, for aught 
 I know, be brought, like the American Indians, to 
 worship him at last, that he may do us no harm. 
 
 And now I have named the Indians in America, I 
 confess it would go a great way in favor of Satan's 
 generosity, as well as in testimony of his power, if we 
 might believe all the accounts which indeed authors 
 are pretty well agreed in the truth of; namely, of the 
 mischiefs the Devil does in those countries, where his 
 dominion seems to be established ; how he uses them 
 when they deny him the homage he claims of them as 
 his due ; what havoc and combustion he makes among 
 them ; and how beneficent he is (or at least negative 
 in his mischiefs) when they appease him by their 
 hellish sacrifices. 
 
 Likewise we see a test of his wicked subtilty in his 
 management of those dark nations, when he was more 
 immediately worshipped by them ; namely, the mak- 
 ing them believe, that all their good weather, rains, 
 dews, and kind influences upon the earth, to make it 
 fruitful, were from him ; whereas they really were the 
 common blessings of an higher hand, and came not 
 from him, (the Devil,) but from him that made the 
 Devil, and made him a devil, or a fallen angel, by his 
 curse. 
 
 But to go back to the method the Devil took with 
 the first of mankind ; it is plain the policy of hell was 
 right, though the execution of the resolves they took 
 did not fully answer their end neither : for Satan, fas- 
 tening upon poor, proud, ridiculous Mother Eve, as I 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 81 
 
 have said before, made presently a true judgment of 
 her capacities, and of her temper; took her by the 
 right handle, and, soothing her vanity, (which is, to 
 this day. the softest place in the head of all the sex,) 
 wheedled her out of her senses by praising her beauty, 
 and promising to made her a goddess. 
 
 The foolish woman yielded presently, and that we 
 are told is the reason why the same method so 
 strangely takes with all her posterity; namely, that 
 you are sure to prevail with them, if you can but once 
 persuade them that you believe they are witty and 
 handsome ; for the Devil, you may observe, never 
 quits any hold he gets ; and, having once found a way 
 into the heart, always takes care to keep the door 
 open, that any of his agents may enter after him with- 
 out any more difficulty : hence the same argument, 
 especially the last, has so bewitching an influence on 
 the sex, that they rarely deny you anything, after they 
 are but weak enough, and vain enough, to accept of 
 the praises you offer them on that head : on the other 
 hand, you are sure they never forgive you the unpar- 
 donable crime of saying they are ugly or disagreeable. 
 It is suggested, that the first method the Devil took 
 to insinuate all those fine things into Eve's giddy 
 head was by creeping close to her one night, when she 
 was asleep, and laying his mouth to her ear, whisper- 
 ing all the fine things to her, which he knew would 
 set her fancy on tip-toe, and so make her receive them 
 involuntarily into her mind; knowing well enough, 
 that when she had formed such ideas in her soul, how- 
 ever they came there, she would never be quiet till she 
 had worked them up to some extraordinary thing or 
 other. 
 
 It was evident what the Devil aimed at, namely, 
 that she should break in upon the command of God, 
 and so, having corrupted herself, bring the curse upon 
 herself and all the race, as God. had threatened : but 
 why the pride of Eve should be so easily tickled by the 
 notion of her exquisite beauty, when there then was 
 no prospect of the use or want of those charms, that 
 indeed makes a kind of difficulty here, which the 
 learned have not determined. For, 
 
 1. If she had been as ugly as the Devil, she had no- 
 
82 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 body to rival her ; so that she need not fear Adam 
 should leave her, and get another mistress. 
 
 2. If she had been as bright and as beautiful as an 
 angel, she had no other admirer but poor Adam ; and 
 he could have no room to be jealous of her, or afraid 
 she should cuckold him ; so that, in short, Eve had no 
 such occasion for her beauty, nor could she make any 
 use of it to a bad purpose, or to a good ; and therefore 
 I believe the Devil, who is too cunning to do anything 
 that signifies nothing, rather tempted her by the hope 
 of increasing her wit, than her beauty. 
 
 But to come back to the method of Satan's tempting 
 her; namely, by whispering to her in her sleep. It 
 was a cunning trick, that is the truth of it ; and by 
 that means he certainly set her head a madding after 
 deism, and to be made a goddess ; and then backed it 
 by the subtle talk he had with her afterwards. 
 
 I am the more particular upon this part, because, 
 however the Devil may have been the first that ever 
 practised it, yet I can assure him the experiment has 
 been tried upon many a woman since, to the wheed- 
 ling her out of her modesty, as well as her simplicity ; 
 and the cunning men tell us still, that if you can come 
 at a woman when she is in a deep sleep, and whisper 
 to her close to her ear, she will certainly dream of the 
 thing you say to her, and so will a man too. 
 
 Well, be this so to her race or not, it was, it seems, 
 so to her; for she waked with her head filled with 
 pleasing ideas, and, as some will have it, unlawful 
 desires ; such as, to be sure, she had never entertained 
 before. These are supposed to be fatally infused in 
 her dream, and suggested to her waking soul, when 
 the organ ear which conveyed them was dozed and 
 insensible ; strange fate of sleeping in paradise ! that 
 whereas we have notice but of two sleeps there, that 
 in one a woman should go out of him, and in the other 
 the Devil should come into her. 
 
 Certainly, when Satan first made the attempt upon 
 Eve, he did not think he should have so easily con- 
 quered her, or have brought his business about so 
 soon ; the Devil himself could not have imagined she 
 should have been so soon brought to forget the com- 
 mand given, or at least who gave it, and have ven- 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 83 
 
 tured to transgress against him. and made her forget, 
 that God had told her, it should be death to her to 
 touch it ; and, above all, that she should aspire to be 
 as wise as him, who was so ignorant before, as to 
 believe it was for fear of her being like himself, that 
 he had forbid it her. 
 
 Well might she be said to be the weaker vessel, 
 though Adam himself had little enough to say for his 
 being the stronger of the two, when he was over-per- 
 suaded (if it were done by persuasion,) by his wife to 
 the same thing. 
 
 And mark how wise they were after they had eaten, 
 and what fools they both acted like, even to one 
 another ; nay, even all the knowledge they attained to 
 by it, was, for aught I see, only to know that they 
 were fools, and to be sensible both of sin and shame ; 
 and see how simply they acted, I say, upon their hav- 
 ing committed the crime, and being detected in it : 
 
 "View them to-day conversing with their God, 
 His image both enjoyed and understood ; 
 To-morrow skulking with a sordid flight, 
 Among the bushes, from the Infinite, 
 As if that power was blind, which gave them sight ; 
 With senseless labor tagging fig-leaf vests, 
 To hide their bodies from the sight of beasts. 
 
 Hark ! how the fool pleads faint, for forfeit life 
 First he reproaches heaven, and then his wife : 
 ' The woman which thou gavest,' as if the gift 
 Could rob him of the little reason left ; 
 A weak pretence to shift his early crime, 
 As if accusing her would excuse him ; 
 But thus encroaching crime dethrones the sense, 
 And intercepts the heavenly influence ; 
 Debauches reason, makes the man a fool, 
 And turns his active light to ridicule." 
 
 It must be confessed, that it was an unaccountable 
 degeneracy, even of their common reasoning, which 
 Adam and Eve both fell into upon the first committing 
 the offence of tasting the forbidden fruit : if that was 
 their being made as gods, it made but a poor appear- 
 ance in its first coming, to hide their nakedness when 
 there was nobody to see them, and cover themselves 
 among the bushes from their Maker: but thus it was, 
 and this the Devil had brought them to ; and well 
 might he, and all the clan of hell, as Mr. Milton brings 
 
84 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 them in, laugh and triumph over the man after the 
 blow was given, as having so egregiously abused and 
 deluded them both. 
 
 But here, to be sure, began the Devil's new king- 
 dom ; as he had now seduced the two first creatures, 
 he was pretty sure of success upon all the race ; and 
 therefore prepared to attack them also, as soon as they 
 came on ; nor was their increasing multitude any dis- 
 couragement to his attempt, but just the contrary; for 
 he had agents enough to employ, if every man and 
 woman that should be born was to want a devil to 
 wait upon them, separately and singly to seduce 
 them ; whereas some whole nations have been such 
 willing subjects to him, that one of his seraphic imps 
 may, for aught we know, have been enough to guide 
 a whole country ; the people being entirely subjected 
 to his government for many ages ; as in America, for 
 example, where some will have it, that he conveyed 
 the first inhabitants ; at least, if he did not, we do not 
 well know who did, or how they got thither. 
 
 And how came all the communication to be so 
 entirely cut off between the nations of Europe and 
 Africa, from whence America must certainly have 
 been peopled, or else the Devil must have done it 
 indeed ? I say, how came the communication to be 
 entirely cut off between them, that except the time, 
 whenever it was, that people did at first reach from 
 one to the other, none ever came back to give their 
 friends any account of their success, or invite them to 
 follow ? Nor did they hear of one another afterwards, 
 as we have reason to think. Did Satan politically 
 keep them thus asunder, lest news from heaven should 
 reach them, and so they should be recovered out of 
 his government? We cannot tell how to give any 
 other rational account of it, that a nation, nay, a 
 quarter of the world, or, as some will have it to be, 
 half the globe, should be peopled from Europe or 
 Africa, or both, and nobody ever go after them, or 
 come back from them, in above three thousand years 
 after. 
 
 Nay, that those countries should be peopled when 
 there was no navigation in use in these parts of the 
 world, no ships made that could carry provisions 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 85 
 
 enough to support the people that sailed in them, but 
 that they must have been starved to death before they 
 could reach the shore of America ; the ferry from 
 Europe or Africa in any part, (which we have known 
 navigation to be practised in,) being at least a thou- 
 sand miles, and in most places much more. 
 
 But as to the Americans, let the Devil and them 
 alone to account for their coming thither; this we are 
 certain of, that we knew nothing of them for a many 
 hundred years ; and when we did, when the discovery 
 was made, they that went from hence found Satan in 
 a full and quiet possession of them, ruling them with 
 an arbitrary government, particular to himself: he had 
 led them into a blind subjection to himself, nay, I 
 might call it devotion, (for it was all of religion that 
 was to be found among them ;) worshipping horrible 
 idols in his name, to whom he directed human sacri- 
 fices continually to be made, till he deluged the coun- 
 try with blood, arid ripened them up for the destruction 
 that followed, from the invasion of the Spaniards, who 
 he knew would hurry them all out of the world as fast 
 as he (the Devil) himself could desire of them. 
 
 But to go back a little to the original of things. It 
 is evident that Satan has made a much better market 
 of mankind, by thus subtly attacking them, and bring- 
 ing them to break with their Maker as he had done 
 before them, than he could have done by fulminating 
 upon them at first, and sending them all out of the 
 world at once ; for now he has peopled his own 
 dominions with them ; and though a remnant are 
 snatched, as it were, out of his clutches, by the agency 
 of invincible grace, of which I am not to discourse in 
 this place, yet this may be said of the Devil, without 
 offence, that he has in some sense, carried his point, 
 and, as it were, forced his Maker to be satisfied with 
 a part of mankind, and the least part too, instead of 
 the great glory he would have brought to himself by 
 keeping them all in his service. 
 
 Mr. Milton, as I have noted above, brings^ the 
 Devil and all hell with him, making a feu de joie for 
 the victory Satan obtained over one silly woman. 
 Indeed it was a piece of success greater in its conse- 
 quence than in the immediate appearance : nor was 
 8 
 
00 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 the conquest so complete as Satan himself imagined to 
 make, since the promise of a redemption out of his 
 hands, which was immediately made to the man, in 
 behalf of himself and his believing posterity, was a 
 great disappointment to Satan, and, as it were, 
 snatched the best part of his victory out of his hands. 
 
 It is certain, the devils knew what the meaning of 
 that promise was, and who was to be the seed of the 
 woman, namely, the incarnate Son of God ; and that 
 it was a second blow to the whole infernal body; but 
 as if they had resolved to let. that alone, Satan went on 
 with his business ; and as he had introduced crime into 
 the common parent of mankind, and thereby secured 
 the contamination of blood, and the descent or propa- 
 gation of the corrupt seed, he had nothing to do but 
 to assist nature in time to come, to carry on its own 
 rebellion, and act itself in the breasts of Eve's tainted 
 posterity ; and that indeed has been the Devil's busi- 
 ness ever since his first victory upon the kind, to this 
 day. 
 
 His success in this part has been such, that we see 
 upon innumerable occasions a general defection has 
 followed ; a kind of taint upon nature, call it what 
 you will, a blast upon the race of mankind; and were 
 it not for one thing, he had ruined the whole family ; 
 
 1 say, were it not for one thing, namely, a selected 
 company or number, which his Maker has resolved he 
 shall not be able to corrupt, or, if he does, the sending 
 the promised seed shall recover back again from him, 
 by the power of irresistible grace ; which number thus 
 selected or elected, call it which we will, are still to 
 supply the vacancies in heaven, which Satan's defec- 
 tion has left open ; and what was before filled up with 
 created seraphs, is now to be restored by recovered 
 saints, by whom infinite glory is to accrue to the 
 kingdom of the Redeemer. 
 
 This glorious establishment has robbed Satan of all 
 the jov of his victory, and left him just where he was, 
 defeareh and disappointed ; nor does the possession of 
 all the myriads of the sons of perdition, who yet some 
 are of the opinion will be snatched from him too at 
 last ; I say, the possession of all these makes no 
 amends to him : for he is such a devil in his nature, 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 that the envy at those he cannot seduce, eats out all 
 the satisfaction of the mischief he has done in seduc- 
 ing all the rest ; hut I must not preach, so I return 
 to things as much needful to know, though less 
 solemn. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of the progress of Satan in carrying on his conquest 
 over mankind, from the fall of Eve to the Deluge. 
 
 I DOUBT, if the Devil was asked the question plainly, 
 he would confess, that after he had conquered Eve 
 by his own wicked contrivance, and then by her 
 assistance had brought Adam too (like a fool as he 
 was,) into the same gulf of misery, he thought he had 
 done his work, compassed the whole race, that they 
 were now his own, and that he had put an end to the 
 grand design of their creation ; namely, of peopling 
 heaven with a new angelic race of souls, who, when 
 glorified, should make up the defection of the host of 
 hell, that had been expunged by their crime ; in a 
 word, that he had gotten a better conquest than if he 
 had destroyed them all. 
 
 But, in the midst of his conquest, he found a check 
 put to the advantages he expected to reap from his 
 victory, by the immediate promise of grace to a part 
 of the posterity of Adam, who, notwithstanding the 
 fall, were to be purchased by the Messiah, and 
 snatched out of his (Satan's) hands, and over whom 
 he could make no final conquest; so that his power 
 met with a new limitation, and that such, as indeed 
 fully disappointed him in the main thing he aimed at; 
 namely, preventing the beatitudes of mankind ; which 
 were thus secured ; (and what if the numbers of man- 
 kind were upon this account increased in such a man- 
 ner, that the selected number should, by length of 
 time, amount to just as many as the whole race, had 
 they not fallen, would have amounted to in all ?) And 
 thus, indeed, the world may be said to be upheld and 
 continued for the sake of those few, since, till their 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 number can be completed, the creation cannot fall, any 
 more than that without them, or but for them, it would 
 not have stood. 
 
 Bat leaving this speculation, and not having inquir- 
 ed of Satan what he has to say on that subject, let us 
 go back to the antediluvian world. The Devil, to be 
 sure, gained his point upon Eve, and in her upon all 
 her race : he drew her into sin; got her turned out of 
 paradise, and the man with her : the next thing was to 
 go to work with her posterity, and particularly with 
 her two sons, Cain and Abel. 
 
 Adam having, notwithstanding his fall, repented 
 very sincerely of his sin, received the promise of re- 
 demption and pardon, with an humble, but believing 
 heart ; charity bids us suppose that he led a very 
 religious and sober life ever after ; arid, especially in 
 the first part of his time, that he brought up his chil- 
 dren very soberly, and gave them all the necessary 
 advantages of a religious education, and a good intro- 
 duction into the world, that he was capable of; and 
 that Eve likewise assisted to both in her place and 
 degree. 
 
 Their two eldest sons, Cain and Abel, the one heir 
 apparent to the patriarchal empire, and the other heir 
 presumptive, I suppose also, lived very sober and 
 religious lives ; and as the principles of natural religion 
 dictated an homage and subjection due to the Almighty 
 Maker, as an acknowledgment of his mercies, and a 
 recognition of their obedience ; so the received usage 
 of religion dictating, at that time, that this homage 
 was to be paid by a sacrifice, they either of them 
 brought a free-will offering to be dedicated to God 
 respectively for themselves and families. 
 
 How it was, and for what reason, that God had 
 respect to the offering of Abel, which, the learned say, 
 was a lamb of the firstlings of the flock, and did not 
 give any testimony of the like respect to Cain, and his 
 offering, which was of the first fruits of the earth, the 
 offerings being equally suited to the respective employ- 
 ment of the men, that is not my present business; but 
 this we find made heart-burnings, and raised envy and 
 jealousy in the mind of Cain; and at that door the 
 Devil immediately entered ; for he, who, from the 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 89 
 
 beginning, was very diligent in his way, never slipped 
 any opportunity, or missed any advantages, that the 
 circumstances of mankind offered him to do mischief. 
 
 What shape or appearance the Devil took up to 
 enter into a conversation with Cain upon the subject, 
 that authors do not take upon them to determine ; but 
 it is generally supposed he personated some of bain's 
 sons or grandsons to begin the discourse, who attacked 
 their father, or perhaps grandfather, upon this occa- 
 sion, in the following manner, or to that purpose : 
 
 D. Sir, I perceive your majesty (for the first race 
 were certainly all monarchs as great as kings, to their 
 immediate posterity) to be greatly disturbed of late ; 
 your countenance is changed, your noble cheerfulness, 
 the glories of your face, are strangely sunk and gone, 
 and you are not the man you used to be. Please your 
 majesty to communicate your griefs to us your chil- 
 dren ; you may be sure, that, if it be possible, we 
 would procure you relief, and restore your delights, 
 the loss of which, if thus you go on to subject yourself 
 to too much melancholy, will be very hurtful to you, 
 and, in the end, destroy you. 
 
 Cain. It is very kind, my dear children, to show 
 your respect thus to your true progenitor, and to offer 
 your assistance. I confess, as you say. my mind is 
 oppressed and displeased ; but, though it is very heavy, 
 yet I know not which way to look for relief; for the 
 distemper is above our reach, no cure can be found for 
 it on earth. 
 
 D. Do not say so, sir : there can be no disease sure 
 on earth, but may be cured on earth ; if it be a mental 
 evil, we have heard that your great ancestor, the first 
 father of us all, who lives still on the great Western 
 Plains towards the Sea, is the oracle to which all his 
 children fly for direction in such cases as are out of 
 the reach of the ordinary understanding of mankind ; 
 please you to give leave, we will take a journey to 
 him, and, representing your case to him, we will hear 
 his advice, and bring it to you with all speed, for the 
 ease of your mind. 
 
 Cain. I know not whether he can reach my case 
 or no. 
 
 D. Doubtless he may ; and. if not. the labor of our 
 8* 
 
90 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 journey is nothing, when placed in competition with 
 the ease of your mind; it is but a few days' travel 
 lost ; and you will not be the worse, if we fail of the 
 desired success. 
 
 Cain. The offer is filial, and I accept your affec- 
 tionate concern for me, with a just sense of an obliged 
 parent; go then, and my blessing be upon you. But, 
 alas ! why do I bless? Can he bless whom God has 
 not blessed? 
 
 D. O ! sir, do not say so ; has not God blessed you? 
 are you not the second sovereign of the earth ? and 
 does he not converse with you face to face ? are noj 
 you the oracle to all your growing posterity, and, next 
 after his Sovereign Imperial Majesty Lord Adam, 
 patriarch of the world? 
 
 Cain. But has not God rejected me, and refused to 
 converse any more with me, while he daily favors and 
 countenances my younger brother, Abel, as if he re- 
 solved to set him up to rule over me? 
 
 D. No, sir, that cannot be, you cannot be disturbed 
 at such a thing; is not the right of sovereignty yours 
 by primogeniture? Can God himself take that away, 
 when it is once given? Are you not Lord Adam's 
 eldest son ? are you not the first-born glory of the cre- 
 ation? and does not the government descend to you by 
 the divine right of birth and blood? 
 
 Cain. But what does all that signify to me, while 
 God appears to favor and caress my younger brother, 
 and to shine upon him, while a black dejection, and 
 token of displeasure, surround me every day, and he 
 does not appear to me as he used to do? 
 
 D. And what need your majesty be concerned at 
 that, if it be so ? if he does not appear pleased, you 
 have the whole world to enjoy yourself in, and all 
 your numerous and rising posterity adore and honor 
 you ; what need those remote things be any disturb- 
 ance to you ? 
 
 Cain. How ! my children, not the favor of God be 
 valued ! yes, yes, in his favor is life; what can all the 
 world avail without the smiles and countenance of 
 him that made it? 
 
 D. Doubtless, sir, he that made the world, and 
 placed you at the head of it all, to govern and direct 
 
THE H1STOKY OF THE DEVIL. 91 
 
 it, has made it agreeable ; and it is able to give you a 
 full satisfaction and enjoyment, if you please to con- 
 sider it well, though you were never to converse with 
 him all the while you live in it. 
 
 Cain. You are quite wrong there, my children, 
 quite wrong. 
 
 D. But do you not, great sir, see all your children 
 as well as us, rejoicing in the plenty of all things ? and 
 are they not completely happy, and yet they know 
 little of this great God'? He seldom converses among 
 us ; we hear of him indeed by your sage advices, and 
 we bring our offerings to you for him, as you direct ; 
 and when that 's done, we enjoy whatever our hearts 
 desire ; and so doubtless may you in an abundant 
 manner, if you please. 
 
 Cain. But your felicity is wrong placed then, or 
 you suppose that God is pleased and satisfied in that 
 your offerings are brought to me ; but what would you 
 say, if you knew that God is displeased'? that he does 
 not accept your offerings ? that when I sacrificed to 
 him in behalf of you all, he rejected my offerings, 
 though I brought a princely gift, being of the finest of 
 the wheat, the choicest and earliest fruits, and the 
 sweetest of the oil, an offering suited to the Giver of 
 them all ? 
 
 D. But if you offered them, sir, how are you sure 
 they were not accepted ? 
 
 Cain. Yes, yes, I am sure ; did not my brother 
 Abel offer, at the same time, a lamb of his flock? for 
 he, you know, delights in cattle, and covers the moun- 
 tains with his herds. Over him, all the while he was 
 sacrificing, a bright emanation shone cheering and en- 
 livening, a pledge of favor; and light ambient flames 
 played hovering in the lower air, as if attending his 
 sacrifice ; and, when ready prepared, immediately 
 descended, and burnt up the flesh, a sweet odoriferous 
 savor ascending to him, who thus testified his accept- 
 ance ; whereas, over my head, a black cloud, misty, 
 and distilling vapor, hung dripping upon the humble 
 altar I had raised, and, wetting the finest and choicest 
 things I had prepared, spoiled and defaced them ; the 
 wood, unapt to burn by the moisture which fell, scarce 
 received the fire I brought to kindle it ; and, even then, 
 
92 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 rather smothered and choked, than kindled into a 
 flame; in a word, it went quite out, without consum- 
 ing what was brought to be offered up. 
 
 D. Let not our truly reverenced lord and father be 
 disquited at all this; if he accepts not what you bring, 
 you are discharged of the debt, and need bring no 
 more; nor have the trouble of such labored collections 
 of rarities any more ; when he thinks fit to require it 
 again, you will have notice, no question, and then it, 
 being called for, will be accepted, or else why should 
 it be required ? 
 
 Cain. That may indeed be the case, nor do I think 
 of attempting any more to bring an offering; for I 
 rather take it, that I am forbidden for the present ; but 
 then, what is it that my younger brother triumphs in ? 
 and how am I insulted, in that he and his house are 
 all joy and triumph, as if they had some great advan- 
 tage over me, in that their offering was accepted when 
 mine was not? 
 
 D. Does he triumph over your majesty, our lord 
 and sovereign ? Give us but your order, and we will 
 go and pull him and all his generation in pieces ; for 
 to triumph over you, who are his elder brother, is an 
 horrid rebellion and treason, arid he ought to be ex- 
 pelled the society of mankind. 
 
 Cain. I think so too, indeed; however, my dear 
 children, and faithful subjects, though I accept your 
 offer of duty and service, yet I will consider very well, 
 before I take up arms against my brother ; besides, our 
 sovereign father, and patriarchal lord, Adam, being yet 
 alive, it is not in my right to act offensively without 
 his command. 
 
 D. We are ready therefore to carry your petition to 
 him, and doubt not to obtain his license and commis- 
 sion too, to impower you to do yourself justice upon 
 your younger brother ; who, being your vassal, or at 
 least inferior, as he is junior in birth, insults you upon 
 the fancied opinion of having a larger share in the 
 Divine favor, and receiving a blessing on his sacrifices, 
 on pretence of the same favor being denied you. 
 
 Cain. I am content. Go, then, and give a just ac- 
 count of the state of our affairs. 
 
 D. We shall soon return with the agreeable answer ; 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 93 
 
 let not our lord and father continue sad and dejected, 
 but depend upon a speedy relief, by the assistance of 
 thy numerous issue, all devoted to thy interest and 
 felicity. 
 
 Cain. My blessing be with you in your way, and 
 give you a favorable reception at the venerable tent of 
 our universal lord and father. 
 
 . Note. Here the cursed race being fully given up to 
 the direction of the evil spirit, which so early possessed 
 them, and swelling with rage at the innocent Abel, 
 and his whole family, they resolved upon forming a 
 most wicked and detestable lie, to bring about the 
 advice which they had already given their father Cain 
 a touch of; and to pretend, that Adam, being justly 
 provoked at the imdutiful behavior of Abel, had given 
 Cain a commission to chastise him, and by force to 
 cut him off, and all his family, as guilty of rebellion 
 and pride. 
 
 Filled with this mischievous and bloody resolution, 
 they came back to their father Cain, after staying a 
 few days, such as were sufficient to make Cain believe 
 they had been at the spacious plains, where Adam 
 dwelt ; the same which are now called the blessed 
 Valleys, or the Plains of Mecca in Arabia Felix, near 
 the banks of the Red Sea. 
 
 Note here also, that Cain having received a wicked 
 hint from these men, his children and subjects, as 
 before, intimating that Abel had broken the laws of 
 primogeniture in his behavior towards him (Cain ;) 
 and that he might be justly punished for it ; Satan, 
 that cunning manager of all our wayward passions, 
 fanned the fire of envy and jealousy with his utmost 
 skill all the while his other agents were absent; and 
 by the time they came back had blown it up into such 
 an heat of fury and rage, that it wanted nothing but 
 air to make it bum out, as it soon afterwards did in a 
 furious flame of wrath and revenge, even to blood and 
 destruction. 
 
 Just in the very critical moment, while things stood 
 thus with Cain, Satan brings in his wicked instruments, 
 as if just arrived with the return of his message from 
 Adam, at whose court they had been for orders ; and 
 thus they, that is, the Devil assuming to speak by 
 
94 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 them, approach their father with an air of solemn, but 
 cheerful satisfaction at the success of their embassy. 
 
 D. Hail, sovereign, reverend, patriarchal lord ! we 
 come with joy to render thee an account of the suc- 
 cesss of our message. 
 
 Cain. Have you then seen the venerable tents where 
 dwell the heaven-born, the angelic pair, to whom all 
 human reverence highly due, is and ought always to 
 be humbly paid? 
 
 D. We have. 
 
 Cain. Did you, together with my grand request, a 
 just and humble homage for me pay, to the great sire 
 and mother of mankind 1 
 
 D. We did. 
 
 Cain. Did you in humble language represent the 
 griefs and anguish which oppress my soul? 
 
 D. We did, and back their blessing to thee bring. 
 
 Cain. I hope, with humblest signs of filial duty, 
 you took it for me on your bending knees ? 
 
 D. W"e did, and had our share ; the patriarch lifting 
 up his hands to heaven, expressed his joy to see his 
 spreading race, and blessed us all. 
 
 Cain. Did you my solemn message too deliver, my 
 injuries impartially lay down, and due assistance and 
 direction crave? 
 
 D. We did. 
 
 Cain. What spoke the oracle ? he is God to me ; 
 what just commands do ye bring? what is to be done? 
 Am I to bear the insulting junior's rage? and meekly 
 suffer what unjustly he, affronting primogeniture, arid 
 laws of God and man, imposes by his pride iinsnffer- 
 able ? Am I to be crushed, and be no more the first- 
 born son on earth, but bow and kneel to him? 
 
 D. Forbid it, heaven ! as Adam too forbids, who 
 with a justice godlike, and peculiar to injured parents, 
 Abel's pride resents, and gives his high command to 
 thee to punish. 
 
 Cain. To punish? say you, did he use the word, 
 the very word? am I commissioned then to punish 
 Abel? 
 
 D. Not Abel only, but his rebel race, as they, alike 
 in crime, alike are joined in punishment. 
 
 Cain. The race indeed have shared the merit with 
 
THE HISTORY OE THE DEVIL. 95 
 
 him; how did they all insult, and with a shout of 
 triumph mock my sorrow, when they saw me from my 
 sacrifice dejected come, as if my disappointment was 
 their joy? 
 
 D. This too the venerable prince resents ; and to 
 preserve the race in bounds of law subordinate arid 
 limited to duty, commands that this first, breach be not 
 passed by, lest the precedent upon record stand to 
 future times to encourage like rebellion. 
 
 Cain. And is it then my sovereign parent's will ? 
 
 D. It is his will, that thou his eldest son, his image, 
 his beloved, should be maintained in all the rights of 
 sovereignty derived to thee from him; and not be left 
 exposed to injury, and power usurped, but should 
 do thyself justice on the rebel race. 
 
 Cain. And sol will; Abel shall quickly know what 
 it is to trample on his elder brother ; shall know that 
 he is thus sentenced by his father; and I am commis- 
 sioned bat to execute his high command, his sentence, 
 which is God's; and that he falls by the hand of 
 heavenly justice. 
 
 So now Satan had done his work, he had deluded 
 the mother to a breach against the first and only com- 
 mand ; he had drawn Adam into the same snare ; and 
 now he brings in Cain prompted by his own rage, and 
 deluded by his (Satan's) craft, to commit murder, nay, 
 a fratricide, an aggravated murder. 
 
 Upon this he sends out Cain, while the bloody rage 
 was in its ferment, and wickedly at the same time, 
 bringing Abel, innocent, and fearing no ill, just in 
 his way, he suggests to his thoughts such words as 
 these : 
 
 Look you, Cain, see how divine justice concurs with 
 your father's righteous sentence; see, there is thy 
 brother Abel directed by Heaven to fall into thy hands 
 unarmed, unguarded, that thou mayst do thyself jus- 
 tice upon him without fear; see, thou mayst kill him; 
 and, if thou hast a mind to conceal it, no eyes can see, 
 nor will the world ever know it, so that no resentment 
 or revenge upon thee, or thy posterity, can be appre- 
 hended, but it may be said some wild beast had rent 
 him ; nor will any one suggest, that thou, his brother 
 and superior, could possibly be the person. 
 
96 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Cain, prepared for the fact by his former avowed 
 rage, and resolution of revenge, was so much the less 
 prepared to avoid the snare thus artfully contrived by 
 the master of all subtlety, the Devil; so he imme- 
 diately runs upon his brother Abel, and, after a little 
 unarmed resistance, the innocent poor man, expecting 
 no such mischief, was conquered and murdered; after 
 which, as is to be supposed, the exasperated crew of 
 Cain's outrageous race overrun all his family and 
 household, killing man, woman, and child. 
 
 It is objected here, that we have no authority in 
 scripture to prove this part of the story ; but I answer, 
 it is not likely but that Abel, as well as Cain, being at 
 man's estate long before this, had several children by 
 their own sisters; for they were the only men in the 
 world who were allowed the marrying their own sis- 
 ters, there being no other women then in the world ; 
 and as we never read of any of Abel's posterity, it is 
 likewise as probable they were all murdered, as that 
 they should kill Abel only, whose sons might imme- 
 diately fall upon Cain for the blood of their father, and 
 so the world have been involved in a civil war as soon 
 as there were two families in it. 
 
 But be it so or not, it is not doubted the Devil 
 wrought with Cain in the horrid murder, or he had 
 never done it ; whether it was directly, or by agents, 
 is not material, nor is the latter unlikely ; and, if the 
 latter, then there is no improbability in the story ; for 
 why might not he that made use of the serpent to tempt 
 Eve, be as well supposed to make a tool of some of 
 Cain's sons or grandsons to prompt him in the wicked 
 attempt of murdering his brother? and why must we 
 be obliged to bring in a miracle, or an apparition, into 
 the story, to make it probable that the Devil had any 
 hand in it, when it was so natural to a degenerate race 
 to act in such a manner? 
 
 However it was, arid by whatever tool the Devil 
 wrought, it is certain that this was the consequence, 
 poor Abel was butchered ; and thus the Devil made a 
 second conquest in God's creation ; for Adam was now, 
 as may be said, really childless ; for his two sons were 
 thus far lost, Abel was killed, and Cain was curst, and 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 97 
 
 driven out from the presence of the Lord, and his race 
 blasted with him. 
 
 It would be an useful inquiry here, and worthy our 
 giving an account of, could we come to a certainty in 
 it ; namely, what was the mark that God set upon- 
 Cain, by which he was kept from being fallen upon by 
 Abel's friends or relations? but as this does not belong 
 to the Devil's history, and it was God's mark, not the 
 Devil's, -I have nothing to do with it here. 
 
 The Devil had now gained his point; the kingdom 
 of grace, so newly erected, had been as it were extinct 
 without a new creation, had not Adam and Eve been 
 alive, and had not Eve, though now one hundred a^d 
 thirty years of age, been a breeding young lady ; for we 
 must suppose the Tvomen, in that state of longevity, 
 bare children till they were seven or eight, hundred 
 years old. This teeming of Eve peopled not the world 
 so much as it restored the blessed race ; for, though 
 Abel was killed, Cain had a numerous offspring pre- 
 sently, which, had Seth (Adam's third son) never been 
 born, would soon have replenished the world with 
 people, such as they were ; the seed of a murderer, 
 cursed of God, branded with a mark of infamy, and 
 who afterwards fell all together in the universal ruin 
 of the race by the deluge. 
 
 But after the murder of Abel, Adam had another 
 son born, namely, Seth, the father of Enos, and indeed 
 the father of the holy race ; for during his time and 
 his son Enos, the text says, that men began to call on 
 the name of the Lord ; that is to say, they began to 
 look back upon Cain and his wicked race ; and, being 
 convinced of the wickedness they had committed, and 
 led their whole posterity into, they began to sue to 
 Heaven for pardon of what was past, and to lead a 
 new sort of life. 
 
 But the Devil had met with too much success in his 
 first attempts, not to go on with his general resolution 
 of debauching the minds of men, and Bringing them off 
 from God; and therefore, as he kept his hold upon 
 Cain's cursed race, embroiled already in blood and 
 murder; so he proceeded with his degenerate offspring, 
 till, in a word, he brought both the holy seed, and the 
 degenerate race, to join in one universal consent of 
 9 
 
98 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL> 
 
 crime, and to go on in it with such aggravating cir- 
 cumstances, as that it repented the Lord that he had 
 made man, and he resolved to overwhelm them again 
 with a general destruction, and clear the world of 
 them. 
 
 The succession of blood in the royal original line of 
 Adam is preserved in the sacred histories, and brought 
 down as low as Noah and his three sons, for a con- 
 tinued series of fourteen hundred and fifty years, say 
 some, sixteen hundred and forty say others ; in which 
 time sin spread itself so generally through the whole 
 race, and the sons of God, so the scripture calls the 
 rn^ii of the righteous seed, the progeny of Seth, came 
 in unto the daughters of men, that is, joined them- 
 selves to the cursed race of Cain, (hd married promis- 
 cuously with them, according to their fancies, the 
 women, it seems, bping beautiful and tempting ; and 
 though the Devil could not make the women hand- 
 some or ugly in one or other families, yet he might 
 work up the gust of wicked inclination on either side, 
 so as to make both the men and the women tempting 
 and agreeable to one another, where they ought not 
 to have been so; and perhaps, as it is often seen to 
 this day, the more tempting for being under legal 
 restraint. 
 
 It is objected here, that we do not find in the scrip- 
 ture, that the men and women of either race were at 
 that time forbidden intermarrying with one another ; 
 and it is true, that literally it is not forbid. But if we 
 did not search rather to make doubts than to explain 
 them, we might suppose it was forbidden by some par- 
 ticular command at that time ; seeing we may rea- 
 sonably allow every thing to be forbidden, which they 
 are taxed with a crime in committing; and as the sons 
 of God taking them wives, as they thought fit to 
 choose, though from among the daughters of the 
 cursed race, is there charged upon them as a general 
 depravation, an4 a great crime, and for which it is 
 said, God even repented that he had made them, we 
 need go no further to satisfy ourselves, that it was 
 certainly forbidden. 
 
 Satan, no doubt, too, had a hand in this wicked- 
 ness ; for as it was his business to prompt men to do 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 99 
 
 everything which God had prohibited, so the reason 
 given why the men of those days did this thing was, 
 they saw the daughters of men, that is, of the wicked 
 race, or forbidden sort, were fair ; he tempted them by 
 the lust of the eye ; in a word the ladies were beau- 
 tiful and agreeable, and the Devil knew how to 
 make use of the allurement ; the men liked and took 
 them by the mere direction of their fancy and appe- 
 tite ; without regarding the supreme prohibition : They 
 took them wives of all which they chose, or such as 
 they liked to choose. 
 
 But the Jext adds, that this promiscuous generation 
 went farther than the mere outward crime of it ; for it 
 showed that the wickedness of the heart of man was 
 great before God, und that he resented it. In short, 
 God perceived a degeneracy or defect of virtue had 
 seized upon the whole race ; that there was a general 
 corruption of manners, a depravity of nature upon 
 them; that even the holy seed was tainted with it ; that 
 the Devil had broken in upon them, and prevailed to a 
 great degree ; that not only the practice of the age was 
 corrupt, for that God could easily have restrained, but 
 that the very heart of man was debauched, his desires 
 wholly vitiated, and his senses engaged in it; so that, 
 in a word, it became necessary to show the divine dis- 
 pleasure, not in the ordinary manner, by judgment and 
 reproofs of such kind as usually reclaim men, but by a 
 general destruction to sweep them away, clear the earth 
 of them, and put an end to the wickedness at once, 
 removing the offence and the offenders all together; 
 this is signified at large, Gen. vi. 5. " God saw that 
 the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and 
 that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart 
 was only evil continually." And again, ver. 11, 12. 
 " The earth also was corrupt before God ; and the 
 earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon 
 the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh 
 had corrupted his way upon the earth." 
 
 It must be confessed it was a strange conquest the 
 Devil had made in the antediluvian world, that he 
 had, as I may say. brought the whole race of man- 
 kind into a general revolt from God. Noah was indeed 
 a preacher of righteousness, and he had preached about 
 
100 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 five hundred years to as little purpose as most of the 
 good ministers ever did ; for we do not read there was 
 one man converted by him, or at least not one of them 
 left; for that at the deluge there was either none of 
 them alive, or none spared but Noah and his three 
 sons, and their wives; and even they are (it is evident) 
 recorded, not so much to be saved for their own good- 
 ness, but because they were his sons : nay, without 
 breach of charity we may conclude, that at least one 
 went to the Devil even of those three ; namely, Ham 
 or Cham, for triumphing in a brutal manner over his 
 father's drunkenness; for we find the special curse 
 reached to him and his posterity for many ages; and 
 whether it went no farther than the present state of 
 life with them, we cannot tell. 
 
 We will suppose now, that through this whole fifteen 
 hundred years, the Devil, having so effectually de- 
 bauched mankind, had advanced his infernal kingdom 
 to a prodigious height ; for the text says, the whole earth 
 was filled with violence : in a word, blood, murder, 
 rape, robbery, oppression and injustice, prevailed 
 everywhere ; and man, like the wild bear in the forest, 
 lived by prey, biting and devouring one another. 
 
 At this time Noah begins to preach a new doctrine 
 to them ; for as he had before been a preacher of 
 righteousness, now he becomes a preacher of ven- 
 geance ; first he tells them they shall be all over- 
 whelmed with a deluge, that for their sins God 
 repented they were made, and that he would destroy 
 them all ; adding, that to prevent the ruin of himself 
 and family, he resolved to build him a ship to have 
 recourse to when the water should come over the rest 
 of the world. 
 
 What jesting, what scorn, what contempt, did this 
 work expose the good old man to for above one hun- 
 dred years? for so long the work was building, as 
 ancient authors say. Let us represent to ourselves in 
 the most lively manner how the witty world at that 
 time behaved to poor old Noah ; how they too*k their 
 evening walks to see what he was doing, and passed 
 their judgment upon it, and upon the progress of it; I 
 say, to represent this to ourselves, we need go no far- 
 ther than to our own witticisms upon religion, and 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 101 
 
 upon the most solemn mysteries of divine worship; 
 how we damn the serious for enthusiasts, think the 
 grave mad, and the sober melancholy ; call religion 
 itself flatus and hypo ; make the devout ignorant, the 
 divine mercenary, and the whole scheme of divinity a 
 frame of priestcraft : and thus no doubt the building 
 an ark or boat, or whatever they called it, to float over 
 the mountains, and dance over the plains, what could 
 it be but a religious frenzy, and the man that so busied 
 himself, a lunatic? and all this in an age when divine 
 things came by immediate revelation into the minds 
 of men ! The Devil must therefore have made a 
 strange conquest upon mankind to obliterate all the 
 reverence which but a little before was so strangely 
 impressed upon them concerning their Maker. 
 
 This was certainly the height of the Devil's king- 
 dom, and we shall never find him arrive to such a 
 pitch again ; he was then truly and literally the uni- 
 versal monarch, nay, the god of this world; and, as 
 all tyrants do, he governs them with an arbitrary, 
 absolute sway; and had not God thought fit to give 
 him a writ of ejectment, and afterwards drown him 
 out of possession, I know not what would have been 
 the case ; he might have kept his hold, for aught I 
 know, till the seed of the woman came to bruise his 
 head, that is to say, cripple his government, dethrone 
 him, and depose his power, as has been fulfilled in the 
 Messiah. 
 
 But as he was, I say, drowned out of the world, his 
 kingdom for the present was at an end ; at least, if he 
 had a dominion, he had no subjects ; and as the cre- 
 ation was in a manner renewed, so the Devil had all 
 his work to do over again. Unhappy man ! how has 
 he, by his weak resistance, made the Devil's recover- 
 ing his hold too easy to him, and given him all the 
 advantages, except as before excepted, which he had 
 before? Now whither he retired in the mean time, 
 and how he got footing again after Noah and his fam- 
 ily were landed upon the new surface, that we come 
 next to inquire. 
 
102 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of the DeviVs second kingdom, and how he got foot- 
 ing in the renewed world by his victory over Noah 
 and his race. 
 
 THE story of Noah, his building the ark, his em- 
 barking himself and all nature's stock for a new world 
 on board it, the long voyage they took, and the bad 
 weather they met with, though it would embellish this 
 work very well, and come in very much to the pur- 
 pose in this place ; yet as it does not belong to the 
 Devil's story, for I cannot prove what some suggest ; 
 namely, that he was in the ark among the rest; I say, 
 for that reason I must omit it. 
 
 And now having mentioned Satan's being in the 
 ark ; as I say, I cannot prove it, so there are, I think, 
 some good reasons to believe he was not there : first, 
 I know no business he had there ; secondly, we read 
 of no mischief done there ; and these joined together 
 make me conclude he was absent ; the last I chiefly 
 insist upon, that we read of no mischief done there ; 
 which, if he had been in the ark, would certainly have 
 happened ; and therefore I suppose rather, that when 
 he saw his kingdom dissolved, his subjects all ingulfed 
 in an inevitable ruin and desolation, a sight suitable 
 enough to him, except as it might unking him for a 
 time : I say, when he saw this, he took care to speed 
 himself away as well as he could, and make his 
 retreat to a place of safety ; where that was, is no 
 more difficult to us, than it was to him. 
 
 It is suggested, that as he is prince of the power of 
 the air, he retired only into that region. It is most 
 rational to suppose he went no farther on many 
 accounts, of which I shall speak by-and-by. Here he 
 staid hovering in the earth's atmosphere, as he has 
 often done since, and perhaps now does ; or, if the 
 atmosphere of this globe was affected by the indraught 
 of the absorption, as some think, then he kept himself 
 upon the watch, to see what the event of the new 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 103 
 
 phenomenon would be ; and this watch, wherever it 
 was, I doubt not, was as near the earth as he could 
 place himself, perhaps in the atmosphere of the meon ; 
 or, in a word, the next place of retreat he could find. 
 
 From hence I took upon me to insist, that Satan has 
 riot a more certain knowledge of events than we ; I 
 say, he has not a more certain knowledge ; that he 
 may be able to make stronger conjectures, and more 
 rational conclusions from that he sees, I will not deny ; 
 and that which he most outdoes us in is, that he sees 
 more to conclude from than we can ; but I am satisfied 
 he knows nothing of futurity more than we can see by 
 observation and inference ; nor, for example, did he 
 know whether God would re-people the world any 
 more or no. 
 
 I must therefore allow, that he only waited to see 
 what would be the event of this strange eruption of 
 water ; and what God proposed to do with the ark, 
 and all that was in it. 
 
 Some philosophers tell us, besides what I hinted 
 above, that the Devil could have no retreat in the 
 earth's atmosphere; for that the air being wholly con- 
 densed into water, and having continually poured 
 down its streams to deluge the earth, that body was 
 become so small, and had suffered such convulsions, 
 that there was but just enough air left to surround the 
 water, or as might serve by its pressure to preserve 
 the natural position of things, and supply the creatures 
 in the ark with a part to breathe in. 
 
 The atmosphere indeed might suffer some strange 
 and unnatural motions at that time, but not (I believe) 
 to that degree ; however, I will not affirm, that there 
 could be room in it, or is now, for the Devil, much less 
 for all the numberless legions of Satan's host ; but there 
 was, and now certainly is, sufficient space to receive 
 him, and a sufficient body of his troops for the business 
 he had for them at that time, and that is enough to 
 the purpose; or if the earth's atmosphere did suffer 
 any particular convulsion on that occasion, he might 
 make his retreat to the atmosphere of the rnoon, or of 
 Mars, or of Venus, or of any of the other planets ; or to 
 any other place ; for he that, is prince of the air could 
 not want retreats in such a case, from whence he 
 
104 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 might watch for the issue of things ; certainly he did 
 not go far, because his business lay here, and he never 
 goes* out of his way of doing mischief. 
 
 In particular, his more than ordinary concern was, 
 to see what would become of the ark. He was wise 
 enough, doubtless, to see, that God. who had directed 
 its making, nay, even the very structure of it, would 
 certainly take care of it, preserve it upon the water, 
 and bring it to some place of safety or other ; though 
 where it should be, the Devil with all his cunning 
 could not resolve, whether on the same surface, the 
 waters drawing off, or in any other created, or to be 
 created place ; and this state of uncertainty beirf evi- 
 dently his case, and which proves his ignorance of 
 futurity, it was his business, I say, to watch with the 
 utmost vigilance for the event. 
 
 If the ark was, (as Mr. Burnet thinks,) guided by 
 two angels, they not only held it from foundering, or 
 being swallowed up, in the water, but certainly kept 
 the waters calm about it, especially when the Lord 
 brought a strong wind to blow over the whole globe, 
 which, by the way, \vas the firsthand, I suppose, the 
 only universal storm that ever blew ; for to be sure, it 
 blew over the whole surface at once; I say, if it was 
 thus guided, to be sure the Devil saw it, and that with 
 envy and regret, that he could do it no injury ; for, 
 doubtless, had it been in the Devil's power, as God had 
 drowned the whole race of man, except what was in 
 the ark, he would have taken care to have despatched 
 them too, and so made an end of the creation at once; 
 but either he was not empowered to go to the ark, or 
 it was so well guarded by angels, that when he came 
 near it, he could do it no harm : so it rested at length, 
 the waters abating, on the mountains of Ararat in Ar- 
 menia, or somewhere else that way, and where they 
 say a piece of the keel is remaining to this day ; of 
 
 which, however, with Dr. , I say, I believe not 
 
 one word. 
 
 The ark being safe landed, it is reasonable to believe 
 Noah prepared to go on shore, as the seamen call it, 
 as soon as the dry land began to appear ; and here you 
 must allow me to suppose Satan, though himself 
 clothed with a cloud, so as not to be seen, came 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 105 
 
 immediately, and, perching on the roof, saw all the 
 heaven-kept household safely landed, and all the host 
 of living creatures dispersing themselves down the 
 sides of the mountains, as the search of their food, or 
 other proper occasions, directed them. 
 
 This sight was enough; Satan was at no loss to 
 conclude from hence, that the design of God was to 
 repeople the world by the way of ordinary generation, 
 from the posterity of these eight persons, without cre- 
 ating any new species. 
 
 Very well, says the Devil ; then my advantage over 
 them, by the snare I laid for poor Eve, is good still ; 
 and I am now just where I was after Adam's expul- 
 sion from the garden, and when I had Cain, and his 
 race, to go to work with ; for here is the old expunged 
 corrupted race still : as Cain was the object then, so 
 Noah is my man now ; and if I do not master him one 
 way or another, I am mistaken in my mark. Pardon, 
 me for making a speech for the Devil. 
 
 Noah, big with a sense of his late condition, and 
 while the wonders of the deluge were fresh in his 
 mind, spent his first days in the ecstasies of his soul, 
 giving thanks, and praising the power that had been 
 his protection in and through the flood of waters, and 
 which had in so miraculous a manner safely la-nded 
 him on the surface of the newly discovered land ; and 
 the text tells us, as one of the first things he was em- 
 ployed in, he built an altar unto the Lord, and offered 
 burnt-offerings upon the altar. Gen. viii. 20. 
 
 While Noah was thus employed, he was safe, the 
 Devil himself could nowhere break in upon him; and 
 we may suppose very reasonably, as he found the old 
 father invulnerable, he left him for some years, watch- 
 ing notwithstanding all possible advantages against 
 his sons, and their children ; for now the family began 
 to increase, and Noah's sons had several children ; 
 whether himself had any more children after the flood 
 or not, that we are not arrived to any certainty about. 
 
 Among his sons the Devil found Japhet and Shem, 
 good, pious, religious, and very devout persons ; serv- 
 ing God daily, after the example of their good old 
 father Noah ; and he could make nothing of them, or 
 of any of their posterity ; but Ham, the second, or, 
 
106 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 according to some, the younger son of Noah, had a 
 son, who was named Canaan, a loose young profligate 
 fellow; his education was probably but cursory and 
 superficial, his father Ham not being near so religious 
 and serious a man as his brothers Shem and Japhet 
 were ; and, as Canaan's education was defective, so 
 he^ proved, as untaught youth generally do, a wild, 
 and, in short, a very wicked fellow, and consequently 
 a fit tool for the Devil to go to work with. 
 
 Noah, a diligent industrious man, being with all his 
 family thus planted in the rich fruitful plains of Arme- 
 nia, or wherever you please, let it be near the moun- 
 tains of Caucasus or Ararat, went immediately to 
 work, cultivating and improving the soil, increasing 
 his cattle and pastures, sowing corn, and among other 
 things planted trees for food ; and among the fruit- 
 trees he planted vines, of the grapes whereof he made, 
 no doubt, as they still in the same country do make, 
 most excellent wine, rich, luscious, strong, and pleas- 
 ant. 
 
 I cannot come into the notion of our critics, who, to 
 excuse Noah from the guilt of what followed, or at 
 least from the censure, tell us, he knew not the strength 
 or the nature of wine ; but that gathering the heavy 
 clusters of the grapes, and their own weight crushing 
 out their balmy juices into his hand, he tasted the 
 tempting liquor; and that, the Devil assisting, he was 
 charmed with the delicious fragrance, and tasted again 
 and again, pressing it out into a bowl, or dish, that he 
 might take a larger quantity; till at length the heady 
 froth ascended, and seized his brain ; he became intox- 
 icate and drunk, not in the least imagining there was 
 any such strength in the juice of that excellent fruit. 
 
 But to make out this story, which is indeed very 
 favorable for Noah, but in itself extremely ridiculous, 
 you must necessarily fall into some absurdities, and 
 beg the question most egregiously in some particular 
 cases ; which way of arguing will by no means support 
 what is suggested ; at first you must suppose there was 
 no such thing as wine made before the deluge, and 
 that nobody had been ever made drunk with the juice 
 of the grape before Noah ; which, I say, is begging the 
 question in the grossest manner. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 107 
 
 If the contrary is true, as I see no reason to question ; 
 if, I say, it was true, that there was wine drank, and 
 that men were or had been drunk with it before; they 
 cannot then but suppose, that Noah, who was a wise, 
 a great and good man, and a preacher of righteousness, 
 both knew of it, and without doubt had, in his preach- 
 ing against their crimes, preached against this among 
 the rest, upbraided them with it, reproved them for it, 
 and exhorted them against it. 
 
 Again, it is highly probable they had grapes grow- 
 ing, and consequently wines made from them, in the 
 antediluvian world: how else did Noah come by the 
 vines which he planted ? For we are to suppose, he 
 could plant no trees or shrubs, but such as he found 
 the roots of in the earth, and which no doubt had been 
 there before in their highest perfection, and had con- 
 sequently grown up, and brought forth the same 
 luscious fruit, before. 
 
 Besides, as he found the roots of the vines, so he 
 understood what they were, and what fruit they bore, 
 or else it may be supposed also he would not have 
 planted them; for he planted them for their fruit, as 
 he did it in the provision he was making for his sub- 
 sistence, and the subsistence of his family ; and if he 
 did not know what they were, he would not have set 
 them ; for he was not planting for diversion, but for 
 profit. 
 
 Upon the whole, it seems plain to me. he knew what 
 he did, as well when he planted the vines, as when he 
 pressed out the grapes ; and also, when he drank the 
 juice, that he knew it was wine, was strong, and 
 would make him drunk, if he took enough of it. He 
 knew that other men had been drunk with such liquor 
 before the flood; and that he had reprehended them 
 for it: and therefore it was not his ignorance, but the 
 Devil took him at some advantage, when his appetite 
 was eager, or he thirsty, and the liquor cooling and 
 pleasant; and in short, as Eve said, the serpent be- 
 guiled her, and she did eat, so the Devil beguiled 
 Noah, and he did drink; the temptation was too 
 strong for Noah, not the wine ; he knew well enough 
 what he did, but, as the drunkards say to this day, it 
 was so good he could not forbear it, and so he got 
 
108 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 drunk before be was aware ; or, as our ordinary speech 
 expresses it, he was overtaken with drink; and Mr. 
 Pool, and other expositors, are partly of the same 
 mind. 
 
 No sooner was the poor old man conquered, and the 
 wine had lightened his head, but it may be supposed 
 he falls off from the chair or bench where he sat, and, 
 tumbling backward, his clothes, which in those hot 
 countries were only loose open robes, like the vests 
 which the Armenians wear to this day, flying abroad y 
 or the Devil so assisting on purpose to expose him, he 
 lay there in a naked indecent posture not fit to be seen. 
 
 In this juncture who should come by but young 
 Canaan! say some; or, as others think, this young 
 fellow first attacked him by way of kindness, and pre- 
 tended affection ; prompted his grandfather to drink, 
 on pretence of the wine being good for him, and proper 
 for the support of his old age; and subtly set upon 
 him, drinking also with him ; and so (his head being 
 too strong for the old man's) drank him down, and 
 then, devil-like, triumphed over him ; boasted of his 
 conquest, insulted the body as it were dead, and un- 
 covered him on purpose to expose him; and, leaving 
 him in that indecent posture, went and made sport 
 with it to his father Ham, who in that part, wicked 
 like himself, did the same to his brethren, Japhet and 
 Shem ; but they, like modest and good men, far from 
 carrying on the wicked insult on their parent, went 
 and covered him, as the Scripture expresses it, and, as 
 may be supposed, informed him how he had been 
 abused, and by whom. 
 
 Why else should Noah, when he came to himself, 
 show his resentment so much against Canaan his 
 grandson, rather than against Ham his father ; and 
 whom it is supposed in the story the guilt chiefly lay 
 upon ? We see the curse is (as it were) laid wholly 
 upon Canaan, the grandson, and not a word of the 
 father is mentioned, Gen. ix. 25, 26, 27. " Cursed be 
 Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be," &c. 
 
 That Ham was guilty that is certain from the his- 
 tory of fact; but I cannot but suppose his grandson 
 was the occasion of it; and in this case the Devil 
 seems to have made Canaan the instrument or tool to 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 109 
 
 delude Noah, and draw him in to drunkenness, as he 
 made the serpent the tool to beguile Eve. and draw 
 her into disobedience. 
 
 Possibly Canaan might do it without design at first, 
 but might be brought in to ridicule, and make a jest 
 of, the old patriarch afterward, as is too frequent since 
 in the practice of our days; but I rather believe he did 
 it really with a wicked design, and on purpose to ex- 
 pose and insult his reverend old parent ; and this 
 seems more like too, because of the great bitterness 
 with which Noah resented it after he came to be in- 
 formed of it. 
 
 But be that as it will, the Devil certainly made a 
 great conquest here, and, as to outward appearance, 
 no less than that which he gained before over Adam ; 
 nor did the Devil's victory consist barely in his hav- 
 ing drawn in the only righteous man of the whole 
 antediluvian world, and so beginning or initiating the 
 new young progeny with a crime; but here was the 
 great oracle silenced at once ; the preacher of righte- 
 ousness, for such no doubt he would have been to the 
 new world, as he was to the old, I say, the preacher 
 was turned out of office, or his mouth stopt, which was 
 worse; nay, it was a stopping of his mouth in the 
 worst kind, -far worse than stopping his breath; for 
 had he died, the office had descended to his sons Shem 
 and Japhet; but he was dead to the office of an in- 
 structor, though alive as to his being : for of what 
 force could his preachings be, who had thus fallen him- 
 self into the most shameful and beastly excess? 
 
 Besides, some are of the opinion, though I hope 
 without ground, that Noah was not only overtaken 
 once in his drink, but that, being fallen into that sin, 
 it became habitual, and he continued in it a great 
 while; and that it was this which is the meaning of 
 his being uncovered in his tent, and that his son saw 
 his nakedness; that is, he continually exposed himself 
 for a long time, an hundred years, say they : and that 
 his son Ham. and his grandson Canaan, having drawn 
 him into it, kept him in it. encouraged and prompted 
 it, and all the while. Satan still prompting them, joined 
 their scoffs and contempt of him, with their wicked 
 10 
 
110 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 endeavors to promote the wickedness; and both with 
 as much success as the Devil himself could wish for. 
 
 Then, as for his two sons modestly and decently 
 covering their father, they tell us, that represents Shem 
 and Japhet applying themselves in an humble and 
 dutiful manner to their father, to intreat and beseech 
 him to consider his ancient glory, his own pious exhor- 
 tations to the late drowned world, and to consider the 
 offence which he gave by his evil courses to God, and 
 the scandal to his whole family; arid also that they 
 are brought in effectually prevailing upon him; and 
 that then Noah cursed the wickedness of Ham's degen- 
 erate race, in testimony of his sincere repentance after 
 the fact. 
 
 The story is not so very unlikely, as it is certain 
 that it is not to be proved ; and therefore we had better 
 take it as we find it, namely, for one single act. But 
 suppose it was so, it is still certain that Noah's preach- 
 ing was sadly interrupted, the energy of his words flat- 
 tened, and the force of his persuasions enervated and 
 abated, by this shameful fall ; that he was effectually 
 silenced for an instructor ever after. And this was as 
 much as the Devil had occasion for; and therefore in- 
 deed we read little more of him, except that he lived 
 three hundred and fifty years after the flood; nay, we 
 do not so much as read, that he had any more chil- 
 dren, but the contrary; nor indeed could Noah have 
 any more children, except by his old and perhaps su- 
 perannuated wife, whom it was very likely he had had 
 four or five hundred years, unless you will suppose he 
 was allowed to marry some of his own progeny, 
 daughters or grand-daughters, which we do not sup- 
 pose was allowed, no not to Adam himself. 
 
 This was certainly a master-piece of the Devil's pol- 
 icy, and a fatal instance of his unhappy diligence; 
 namely, that the door of the ark was no sooner open, 
 and the face of the world hardly dry from the univer- 
 sal destruction of mankind, but he was at work among 
 them; and that not only to forma general defection 
 among the race, upon the foot of the original taint of 
 nature, but like a bold Devil he strikes at the very 
 root, and flies at the next general representative of 
 mankind, attacks the head of the family, that in his 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. Ill 
 
 miscarriage the rise and progress of a reformation of 
 the new world should receive an early check, and 
 should be a* once prevented; I say, like a bold devil, 
 he strikes at the root; and alas ! poor unhappy Noah ! 
 he proved too weajr for him; Satan prevailed in his 
 very first attempt and got the victory over him at 
 once. 
 
 Noah thus overcome, and Satan's conquest carried 
 on to the utmost of his own wishes, the Devil had little 
 more to do in the world for some ages, than to carry 
 on an universal degeneracy among mankind, and to 
 finish it by a like diligent application, in deluding the 
 generality of the race, and them as they came on grad- 
 ually into life ; this he found the less difficult, because 
 of the first defection which spread like a contagion upon 
 the earth immediately after. 
 
 The first evidence we have of his success in this 
 mischievous design was in the building that great stu- 
 pendous staircase, for such it seems it was intended, 
 called Babel, which, if the whole world had not been 
 drunk, or otherwise infatuated, they would never have 
 undertaken ; even Satan himself could never have pre- 
 vailed with them to undertake such a preposterous 
 piece of work, for it had neither end or means, possi- 
 bility or probability in it. 
 
 1 must confess I am sometimes apt to vindicate our 
 old ancestors, in my thoughts, from the charge itself, 
 as we generally understand it ; namely, that they really 
 designed to build a tower which should reach up to 
 heaven, or that it should secure them in case of 
 another flood; and Father Casaubon is of my opinion. 
 Whether I am of his or no, is a question by itself. 
 His opinion is, that the confusion was nothing but a 
 breach among the undertakers and directors of the 
 work ; and that the building was designed chiefly for 
 a storehouse for provisions, in case of a second deluge. 
 As to their notion of its reaching up to heaven, he 
 takes the expression to be allegorical rather than literal, 
 and only to mean that it should be exceeding high. 
 Perhaps they might not be astronomers enough to 
 measure the distance of space between the earth and 
 heaven, as we pretend to do now ; but as Noah was then 
 alive, and as we believe all his three sons were so too, 
 
112 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 they were able to have informed them how absurd it 
 was to suppose either the one or the other; namely, 
 1, that they could build up to heaven* or, 2, that 
 they could build firm enough to resist, or high enough 
 to overtop the waters, supposing such another flood 
 should happen. I would rather think it was only that 
 they intended to build a most glorious and magnificent 
 city, where they might all inhabit together ; and that 
 this tower was to be built for ornament, and also for 
 strength, or as above, and for a storehouse to lay up 
 vast magazines of provisions, in case of extraordinary 
 floods, or other events, the city being built in a great 
 plain, namely, the plains of Shinar, near the river 
 Euphrates. 
 
 But the story, as it is recorded, suits better with 
 Satan's measures at that time; and as he was from 
 the beginning prompting them to everything that was 
 contrary to the happiness of man, so the more pre- 
 posterous it was, and the more inconsistent with com- 
 mon sense, the more to his purpose; and it showed 
 the more what a complete conquest he had gained 
 over the reason as well as the religion of mankind at 
 that time. 
 
 Again, it is evident in this case, they were not only 
 acting contrary to the nature of things, but contrary to 
 the design and to the command of heaven ; for God's 
 command was, that they should replenish the earth, 
 that is, that they should spread their habitations over it, 
 and people the whole globe; whereas they were pitch- 
 ing in one place, as if they were not to multiply suf- 
 ficient to take up any more. 
 
 But what cared the Devil for that? or, to put it a 
 little handsomer, that was what Satan aimed at; for 
 it was enough to him, to bring mankind to act just 
 contrary to what heaven had directed or commanded 
 them in anything, and if possible, in everything. 
 
 But God himself put a stop 'to this foolish piece of 
 work ; and it was time indeed to do so, for a madder 
 thing the Devil himself never proposed to them ; I say, 
 God himself put a stop to this new undertaking, and 
 disappointed the Devil; and how was it done? Not 
 in judgment and anger, as perhaps the Devil expected, 
 and hoped for, but as pitying the simplicity of that 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 113 
 
 dreaming creature man, he confused their speech, or 
 as some say, divided and confused their counsels, so 
 that they could not agree with one another; which 
 would be the same thing as not to understand one 
 another; or he put a new Shibboleth upon their 
 tongues, thereby separating them into tribes or families, 
 for by this every family found themselves under a 
 necessity of keeping together; and this naturally in- 
 creased that different jargon of language, for at first it 
 might be no more. 
 
 What a confusion this was to them we all know, by 
 their being obliged to leave off their building, and im- 
 mediately separating one from another; but what a 
 surprise it was to the old serpent, that remains to be 
 considered of, for indeed it belongs to his history. 
 
 Satan had never met with any disappointment in all 
 his wicked attempts till now; for first, he succeeded 
 even to triumph upon Eve, he did the like upon Cain, 
 and, in short, upon the whole world, one man (Noah) 
 excepted ; when he blended the sons of God, and the 
 daughters of hell, for so the word is understood, 
 together, in promiscuous voluptuous living as well as 
 generation. 
 
 As to the deluge, authors are not agreed whether it 
 was a disappointment to the Devil or no; it might he 
 indeed a surprise to him ; for though Noah had 
 preached of it for an hundred years together ; yet, as 
 he (Satan) daily prompted the people not to heed or 
 believe what that old fellow Noah said to them, and 
 to ridicule his whimsical building a monstrous tub to 
 swim or float in, when the said deluge should come; 
 so I am of the opinion he did not believe it himself, and 
 am positive he could not foresee it, by any insight into 
 futurity that he was master of. 
 
 It is true the astronomers tell us, there was a very 
 terrible comet seen in the air ; that it appeared for one 
 hundred and eighty days before the flood continually; 
 and that as it approached nearer and nearer every day 
 all the while, so that at last it burst and fell down in a 
 continual spout or stream of water, being of a watery 
 substance, and the quantity so great, that it was forty 
 days a falling ; so that this comet not only foretold the 
 10* 
 
114 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 deluge or drowning of the earth, but actually per- 
 formed it, and drowned it from itself. 
 
 But to Cleave this tale to them that told it, let us 
 consider the Devil, surprised, and a little amazed, at 
 the absorption or inundation, or whatever we are to call 
 it, of the earth in the deluge; not, I say, that he was 
 much concerned at it, perhaps just the contrary ; and 
 if God would drown it again, and as often as he 
 thought fit, I do not see by anything I meet with in 
 Satan's history, or in the nature of him, that he would 
 be at all disturbed at it ; all that I can see in it, that 
 could give Satan any concern, would be, that all his 
 favorites were gone, and he had his work to do over 
 again, to lay a foundation for a new conquest in the 
 generation that was to come. But in this his prospect 
 was fair enough ; for why should he be discouraged, 
 when he had now eight people to work upon, who met 
 with such success when he had but two ? And why 
 should he question breaking in now, where nature was 
 already vitiated and corrupted, when he had before 
 conquered the same nature, when in its primitive rec- 
 titude and purity, just come out of the hands of its 
 maker, and fortified with the awe of his high and 
 solemn command just given them, and the threatening 
 of death also annexed to it, if broken ? 
 
 But I go back to the affair of Babel, this confusion 
 of language, or of counsels, take it which way you 
 will, as the first disappointment that I find the Devil 
 met with, in all his attempts and practices upon man- 
 kind, or upon the new creature, which I mentioned 
 above; for now he foresaw what would follow; 
 namely, that the people would separate and spread 
 themselves over the whole surface of the earth, and a 
 thousand new scenes of actions would appear, in which 
 he therefore prepares himself to behave as he should 
 see occasion. 
 
 How the Devil learned to speak all the languages 
 that were now to be used, and how many languages 
 they were, the several ancient writers of the Devil's 
 story have not yet determined ; some tell us they were 
 divided only into fifteen, some into seventy-two, others 
 into one hundred and eighty, and others again into 
 several thousands. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 It also remains a doubt with me, and, I suppose, 
 will be so with others also, whether Satan has yet 
 found out a method to converse with mankind, with- 
 out the help of language and words, or not ; seeing 
 man has no other medium of conversing, no not with 
 himself. This I have not time to enter upon here ; 
 however, this seems plain to me ; namely, that the 
 Devil soon learned to make mankind understand him, 
 whatever language he spoke ; and no doubt but he 
 found ways and means to understand them, whatever 
 language they spoke. 
 
 After the confusion of languages, the people neces- 
 sarily sorted themselves into families and tribes, every 
 family understanding their own particular speech, and 
 that only; and these families multiplying grew into 
 nations; and those nations, wanting room, and seeking 
 out habitations, wandered some this way, some that, 
 till they found out countries respectively proper for 
 their settling ; and there they became a kingdom, 
 spreading and possessing still more and more land as 
 their people increased, till at last the whole earth was 
 scarce big enough for them. This presented Satan 
 with an opportunity to break in upon their morals 
 at another door, namely, their pride; for men being 
 naturally proud and envious, nations and tribes 
 began to jostle with one another for room ; either one 
 nation enjoyed better accommodation, or "had a better 
 soil, or a more favorable climate, than another ; and 
 these, being numerous and strong, thrust the other 
 out, and encroached upon their land ; the other, liking 
 their situation, prepare for their defence ; and so began 
 oppression, invasion, war, battle and blood ; Satan all 
 the while beating the drums, and his attendants clap- 
 ping their hands as men do when they set dogs upon 
 one another. 
 
 The bringing mankind thus to war and confusion, 
 as it was the first game the Devil played after the 
 confounding of languages, and divisions at Babel, so it 
 was a conquest upon mankind, purely devilish, born 
 from hell, and so exactly tinctured with Satan's orig- 
 inal sin, ambition, that it really transformed men into 
 mere devils; for when is man transformed into the 
 very image of Satan himself, when is he turned into 
 
116 THE HISTORY OP THE DEVIL. 
 
 a mere devil, if it is not when he is fighting with his 
 fellow creatures, and dipping his hands in the blood 
 of his own kind? Let his picture be considered, the 
 fire of hell flames or sparkles in his eyes; a voracious 
 grin sits upon his countenance ; rage and fury distort 
 the muscles of his face ; his passions agitate his whole 
 body; and he is metamorphosed from a comely beaute- 
 ous angelic creature, into a fury, a satyr, a terrible and 
 frightful monster, nay, into a devil ; for Satan himself 
 is described by the same word which on his very 
 account is changed into a substantive, and the devils 
 are called furies. 
 
 This sowing the seeds of strife in the world, and 
 bringing nations to fight and make war upon one 
 another, would take up a great part of the Devil's his- 
 tory, and abundance of extraordinary things would 
 occur in relating the particulars; for there have been 
 very great conflagrations kindled in the world by the 
 artifice of hell, under this head, namely, of making 
 war ; in which it has been the Devil's master-piece, 
 and he has indeed shown himself a workman in it, 
 that he has wheedled mankind into strange, unnatural 
 notions of things, in order to propagate and support 
 the fighting principle in the world ; such as laws of 
 war, fair fighting, behaving like men of honor, fighting 
 at the last drop; and the like, by which killing and 
 murdering is understood to be justifiable. Virtue, and 
 a true greatness in spirit, is rated now by rules which 
 God never appointed ; and the standard of honor is 
 quite different from that of reason, and of nature. 
 Bravery is denominated not from a fearless undaunted 
 spirit in the just defence of life and liberty, but from a 
 daring defiance of God and man, fighting, killing, and 
 treading under foot his fellow-creatures, at the ordi- 
 nary command of the officer, whether it be right or 
 wrong, and whether it be in a just defence of life, and 
 our country's life, that is, liberty, or whether it be for 
 the support of injury and oppression. 
 
 A prudent avoiding causeless quarrels is called 
 cowardice, and to take an affront, baseness and mean- 
 ness of spirit ; to refuse fighting, and putting life at a 
 cast on the point of a sword, a practice forbid by the 
 laws of God, and of all good government, is yet called 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 nr 
 
 cowardice ; and a man is bound to die duelling, or live 
 and be laughed at. 
 
 But thus has Satan abused the reason of man ; and 
 if a man does me the greatest injury in the world, I 
 must do myself justice upon him, by venturing my life 
 upou an even lay with him, and must fight him upon 
 equal hazard, in which the injured person is as often 
 killed as the person offering the injury. But this 
 indeed is the reasoning which the Devil has brought 
 mankind to at this day : but to go back to the subject, 
 namely, the Devil bringing the nations to fall out, and 
 to quarrel for room in the world, and so to fight in 
 order to dispossess one another of their settlements. 
 This began at a time when certainly there were 
 places enough in the world for every one to choose in ; 
 and therefore the Devil, not the want of elbow-room, 
 must be the occasion of it; and it is carried on ever 
 since, as apparently, from the same interest, and by 
 the same original. 
 
 But we shall meet with this part again very often in 
 the Devil's story, and as we bring him farther on in 
 the management of mankind : I therefore lay it by for 
 the present, and come to the next steps the Devil took 
 with mankind after the confusion of languages: and 
 this was in the affair of worship. It does not appear 
 yet, that ever the Devil was so bold, as either, 
 
 1. To set himself up to be worshipped as a God ; or, 
 which was still worse, 
 
 2. To persuade man to believe there was no God at 
 all to worship. 
 
 Both these are introduced since the deluge, one 
 indeed by the Devil, who soon found means to set 
 himself up for a god in many parts of the world, and 
 holds it to this day ; but the last is brought in by the 
 invention of man, in which, it must be confessed, man 
 has out-sinned the Devil ; for, to do Satan justice, he 
 never thought it could ever pass upon mankind, or 
 that anything so gross would go down with them ; so 
 that, in short, these modern casuists, in the reach of 
 our days, have, I say, out-sinned the Devil. 
 
 As then both these are modern inventions, Satan 
 went on gradually ; and, being to work upon human 
 
118 
 
 THE HISTOKY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 nature by stratagem, not by force, it would have been 
 too gross to have set himself up as an object of wor- 
 ship at first; it was to be done step by step : for ex- 
 ample : 
 
 1. It was sufficient to bring mankind to a neglect of 
 God, to worship him by halves, and give little or no 
 regard to his laws, and so grow loose and immoral, in 
 direct contradiction to his commands ; this would not 
 go down with them at first; so the Devil went on 
 gradually. 
 
 2. From a negligence in worshipping the true God, 
 he by degrees introduced the worship of false gods : and 
 to introduce this, he began with the sun, moon, and 
 stars, called in the holy text the host of heaven ; these 
 had greater majesty upon them, and seemed fitter to 
 command the homage of mankind; so it was not the 
 hardest thing in the world to bring men, when they 
 had once forgotten the true God, to embrace the wor- 
 ship of such gods as those. 
 
 3. Having thus debauched their principles in wor- 
 ship, and led them from the true and only object of 
 worship to a false, it was the easier to carry them on ; so 
 in a few gradations more he brought them to down- 
 right idolatry ; and even in that idolatry he proceeded 
 gradually too ; for he began with awful names, such 
 as were venerable in the thoughts of men, as Baal or 
 Bel, which, in the Chaldaic and Hebrew, signifies lord 
 or sovereign, or mighty and magnificent ; and this 
 was therefore a name ascribed at first to the true 
 God; but afterwards they descended to make images 
 and figures to represent him, and then they were called 
 by the same name, as Baal, Baalim, and afterwards 
 Bel ; from which, by an hellish degeneracy, Satan 
 brought mankind to adore every block of their own 
 hewing, and to worshipping stocks, stones, monsters, 
 hobgoblins, and every sordid frightful thing, and at 
 last the Devil himself. 
 
 What notions some people may entertain of the for- 
 wardness of the first ages of the world to run into 
 idolatry, I do not inquire here ; I know they tell us 
 strange things, of its being the product of mere nature, 
 one remove from its primitive state ; but I, who pre- 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 119 
 
 
 
 tend to have so critically inquired into Satan's history, 
 can assure you, and that from very good authority, 
 that the Devil did not find it so easy a task to obliter- 
 ate the knowledge of the true God in the minds and 
 consciences of men, as those people suggest. 
 
 It is true he carried things a great length under the 
 patriarchal government of the first ages ; but still he 
 was sixteen hundred years bringing it to pass : and 
 though we have reason to believe the old world, before 
 the flood, was arrived to a very great height of wick- 
 edness; and Ovid very nobly describes it by the war 
 of the Titans against Jupiter ; yet we do not read that 
 ever Satan was come to such a length as to bring them 
 to idolatry : indeed we do read of wars carried on 
 among them, whether it was one nation against 
 another, or only personal, we cannot tell: but the 
 world seemed to be swallowed up in a life of wicked- 
 ness, that is to say, of luxury and lewdness, rapine 
 and violence; and there were giants among them, and 
 men of renown, that is to say, men famed for their 
 mighty valor, great actions of war, we may suppose, 
 and their strength, who personally opposed others. 
 We read of no considerable wars indeed ; but it is not 
 to be doubted but there were such wars; or else it is 
 to be understood that they lived (in common) a life 
 somewhat like the brutes, the strong devouring the 
 weak ; for the texts say, the whole earth was filled 
 with violence, hunting and tearing one another in 
 pieces, either for dominion, or for wealth; either for 
 ambition, or for avarice, we know not well which. 
 
 Thus far the old antediluvian world went ; and very 
 wicked they were, there is no doubt of that; but we 
 have reason to believe that was no idolatry; the Devil 
 had not brought them that length yet ; perhaps it 
 would soon have followed, but the deluge intervened. 
 
 After the deluge, as I have said, he had all his 
 work to do over again, and he went on by the same 
 steps ; first he brought them to violence and Avar, then 
 to oppression and tyranny, then to neglect of true 
 worship, then to false worship, and then idolatry by 
 the mere natural consequence of the thing. Who 
 were the first nation or people that fell from the wor- 
 ship of the true God. is something hard to determine ; 
 
120 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 the Devil, who certainly of all God's creatures is best 
 able to inform us, having left us nothing upon record 
 upon that subject: but we have reason to believe it 
 was thus introduced : 
 
 Nimrod was the grandson of Ham, Noah's second 
 son, the same who was cursed by his father for expos- 
 ing him in his drunkenness : this Nimrod was the first 
 whom it seems Satan picked out for an hero: here he 
 inspired him with ambitious thoughts, dreams of em- 
 pire, and having the government of all the rest, that is 
 to say, universal monarchy; the very same bait with 
 which he has played upon the frailty of princes, ano> 
 ensnared the greatest of them ever since, even from his 
 most august imperial majesty King Nimrod the first, to 
 his most Christian majesty Louis XIV., and many a 
 mighty monarch between. 
 
 When these mighty monarchs and men of fame went 
 off the stage, the world had their memories in esteem 
 many ages after ; and as their great actions were 
 no otherwise recorded than by oral tradition, and the 
 tongues and memories of fallible men, time and the 
 custom of magnifying the past actions of kings, men 
 soon fabled up their histories, Satan assisting, into 
 miracle and wonder : hence their names were had in 
 veneration more and more ; statues and bustoes repre- 
 senting their persons, and great actions, were set up in 
 public places, till from heroes and champions they 
 made gods of them ; and thus (Satan prompting) the 
 world was quickly filled with idols. 
 
 This Nimrod is he, who, according to the received 
 opinion, though I do not find Satan's history exactly 
 concurring with it, was first called Belus, then Baal, 
 and worshipped in most of the eastern countries under 
 those names; sometimes with additions of surnames, 
 according to the several countries, or people, or towns, 
 where he was particularly set up, as Baal-Peor, Baal- 
 Zephon, Baal-Phegor, and in other places plain Baal, 
 as Jupiter in aftertimes had the like additions : as 
 Jupiter Ammon, Jupiter Capitolinus, Jupiter Pistor, 
 Jupiter Feretrius, and about ten or twelve Jupiters 
 more. 
 
 I must acknowledge that I think it was a master- 
 piece of hell, to bring the world to idolatry so soon 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 121 
 
 after they had had such an eminent example of the 
 infinite power of the true (jrod, as was seen in the 
 deluge, and particularly in the escape of Noah in the 
 ark ; to bring them (even before Noah or his sons were 
 dead) to forget whose hand it was, and give the 
 homage of the world to a name, and that a name 
 of a mortal man dead and rotten, who was famous 
 for nothing when he was alive, but blood and 
 war; I say, to bring the world to set up this nothing, 
 this mere name, nay, the very image and picture of 
 him, for a God ! It was first a mark of prodigious 
 stupidity in the whole race of men, a monstrous de- 
 generacy from nature, and even from common sense; 
 and in the next place it was a token of an inexpressible 
 craft and subtility in the Devil, who had now gotten 
 the people into so full and complete a management, 
 that, in short, he could have brought them by the same 
 rule, to have worshipped anything ; and in a little 
 while more, did bring many of them to worship him- 
 self, plain devil as he was. and knowing him to be 
 such. 
 
 As to the antiquity of this horrible defection of man- 
 kind, though we do not find the beginning of it par- 
 ticularly recorded, yet we are certain, it was not long 
 after the confusion of Babel : for Nimrod, as is said, 
 was no more than Noah's great-grandson, and Noah 
 himself, I suppose, might be alive some years after 
 Nimrod was born ; and as Nimrod was not long dead, 
 before they forgot that he was a tyrant, and a mur- 
 derer, and made a Baal, that is, a lord or idol of him; 
 I say, he was not long dead ; for Nimrod was born in 
 the year of the world 1847, and built Babylon the 
 year 1879 : and we find Terah, the father of Abraham, 
 who lived from the year 1879, was an idolater, as was 
 doubtless Bethuel, who was Terah's grandson; for we 
 find Laban, who was Bethuel's son, was so, and all 
 this was during the life of the first postdiluvian 
 family ; for Terah was born within one hundred nine- 
 ty-three years after the flood, and one hundred fifty- 
 seven years before Noah was dead ; and even Abra- 
 ham himself was eight-and-fifty years old before Noah 
 died ; and yet idolatry had been then, in all probability, 
 above an hundred years practised in the world. 
 
122 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 N. B. It is worth remark here, what a terrible ad- 
 vantage the Devil gained by the debauching poor Noah, 
 and drawing him into the sin of drunkenness ; for by 
 this, as I said, he silenced and stopped the mouth of 
 the great preacher of righteousness, that father and 
 patriarch of the whole world ; who not being able, for 
 the shame of his own foul miscarriage, to pretend to 
 instruct or reprove the world any more, the Devil took 
 hold of them immediately ; and for want of a prophet 
 to warn and admonish, run that little of religion which 
 there might be left in Shem and Japhet, quite out of 
 the world, and deluged them all in Idolatry. 
 
 How long the whole world may be said to be thus 
 overwhelmed in ignorance and idolatry, we may make 
 some tolerable guess at by the history of Abraham ; for 
 it was not till God called him from his father's house, 
 that any such thing as a church was established in the 
 world ; nor even then, except in his own family and 
 successors for almost four hundred years after that 
 call; and till God brought the Israelites back out of 
 Egypt, the whole world might be said to be involved 
 in idolatry and devil-worship. 
 
 So absolute a conquest had the Devil made over 
 mankind immediately after the flood ; and all taking 
 its rise and beginning at the fatal defeat of Noah, who, 
 had he lived untainted and invulnerable, as he had 
 done for six hundred years before, would have gone a 
 great way to have stemmed the torrent of wickedness 
 which broke in upon mankind ; and therefore the 
 Devil, I say, was very cunning, and very much in the 
 right of it. take him as he is a mere devil, to attack 
 Noah personally, and give him a blow so soon. 
 
 It is true, the Devil did not immediately raze out 
 the notion of religion, and of a God, from the minds of 
 men; nor could he easily suppress the principle of 
 worship and homage, to be paid to a sovereign being, the 
 author of nature, and guide of the world: the Devil 
 saw this clearly in the first ages of the new world; 
 and therefore, as I have said, he proceeded politically, 
 and by degrees. That it was so, is evident from the 
 story of Job. and his three friends; who. if we may 
 take it for an history, not a fable, and may judge of 
 the time of it by the length of Job's life, and by the 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 123 
 
 family of Eliphaz the Temanite, who it is manifest 
 was at least grandson, or great-grandson, to Esau, 
 Isaac's eldest son ; and by the language of Abimelech 
 King of Gerar to Abraham, and of Laban to Jacob, 
 both the latter being at the same time idolaters; I say, 
 if we may judge of it by all these, there were still 
 very sound notions of religion in the minds of men ; 
 nor could Satan with all his cunning and policy deface 
 those ideas, and root them out of the minds of the 
 people. 
 
 And this put him upon taking new measures to keep 
 up his interest, and preserve the hold he got upon 
 mankind; and this method was like himself, subtle 
 and politic to the last degree, as his whole history 
 makes appear ; for, seeing he found they could not but 
 believe the being of a God, and that they would needs 
 worship something, it is evident, he had no game left 
 him to play but this; namely, to set up wrong notions 
 of worship, and bring them to a false worship instead 
 of a true, supposing the object worshipped to be still 
 the same. 
 
 To finish this stratagem, he first insinuates, that the 
 true God was a terrible, a dreadful, unapproachable 
 being ; that to see him was so frightful that it would 
 be present death; that to worship him immediately, 
 was a presumption which would provoke his wrath ; 
 and that as he was a consuming fire in himself, so he 
 would burn up those in his anger that dared to offer 
 up any sacrifice to him, but by the interposition of 
 some medium, which might receive their adorations in 
 his name. 
 
 Hence it occurred presently, that subordinate Gods 
 were to be found out, and set up, to whom the people 
 might pay the homage due to the Supreme God, and 
 whom they might worship in his name. This I take 
 from the most ancient account of idolatry in the 
 world ; nor, indeed, could the Devil himself find out 
 any other reason why men should canonize, or rather 
 deify their princes and men of fame, and worship 
 them after they were dead, as if they could save them 
 from death and calamity, who were not able to save 
 themselves when they were alive; much less could 
 Satan bring men to swallow so gross, so absurd a thing 
 
124 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 as the bowing the knee to a stock, or a stone, a calf, 
 an ox, a lion, nay, the image or figure of a calf, such 
 as the Israelites made at mount Sinai, and say, These 
 be thy Gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the 
 land of Egypt. 
 
 Having thus, I say, brought them to satisfy them- 
 selves, that they worshipped the true God, and no other, 
 under the figures and appearances which they made to 
 represent him, it was easy after that to worship any- 
 thing for the true God. And thus in a few ages they 
 worshipped nothing but idols, even throughout the 
 whole world ; nor has the Devil lost his hold in some 
 parts of the world, nay, not in most parts of the world, 
 to this day. He holds still all the eastern parts of 
 Asia, and the southern parts of Africa, and the north- 
 ern parts of Europe ; and in them the vast countries of 
 China and Tartary, Persia and India, Guinea, Ethi- 
 opia, Zanqnebar, Congo. Angola, Moriomotapa, &c. in 
 which, except Ethiopia, we find no vestiges of any 
 other worship, but that of idols, monsters, and even 
 the Devil himself; till after the coming of our Saviour, 
 and even then, if it be true that the gospel was preached 
 in the Indies and China by St. Thomas, and in other 
 remote countries by other of the Apostles, we see that 
 whatever ground Satan lost, he seems to have recovered 
 it again ; and all Asia and Africa is at present overrun 
 with Paganism or Mahometanism, which I think of 
 the two is rather the worst; besides all America, a 
 part of the world, as some say, equal in bigness to all 
 the other, in which the Devil's kingdom was never in- 
 terrupted from its first being inhabited, whenever it 
 was, to the first discovery of it by the European nations 
 in the sixteenth century. 
 
 In a word, the Devil got what we may call an en- 
 tire victory over mankind, and drove the worship of 
 the true God, in a manner, quite out of the world, 
 forcing, as it were, his Maker, in a new kind of 
 Creation, the old one proving thus ineffectual, to re- 
 cover a certain number by force, and mere omnipotence, 
 to return to their duty, serve him, and worship him. 
 But of that hereafter. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 125 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Of Gods calling a church out of the midst of a de- 
 generate world; and of Satan'' s new measures upon 
 that incident. How he attacked them immediately ; 
 and his success in those attacks. 
 
 SATAN having, as I have said in the preceding chap- 
 ter, made, as it were, a full conquest of mankind; de- 
 bauched them all to idolatry ; and brought them at 
 least to worship the true God by the wretched medium 
 of corrupt and idolatrous representations; God seemed 
 to have no true servants or worshippers left in the 
 world ; but if I may be allowed to speak so, was 
 obliged, in order to restore the world to their senses 
 again, to call a select number out from among the rest, 
 who he himself undertook should own his godhead, or 
 supreme authority, and worship him as he required to 
 be worshipped. This, I say, God was obliged to do, 
 because it is evident it has not been done so much by 
 the choice and counsel of men, for Satan would have 
 overruled that part, as by the power and energy of 
 some irresistible and invincible operation, and this our 
 Divines give high names to; but be it what they will, 
 it is the second defeat or disappointment that the Devil 
 has met with in his progress in the world ; the first I 
 have spoken of already. 
 
 It is true, Satan very well understood what was 
 threatened to him in the original promise to the Woman 
 immediately after the fall; namely, Thou shalt bruise 
 his head, &c., but he did not expect it so suddenly, but 
 thought himself sure of mankind, till the fulness of 
 time when the Messiah should come; and therefore it 
 Avas a great surprise to him, to see that Abraham, 
 being called, was so immediately received and estab- 
 lished, though he did not so immediately follow the 
 voice that directed him, yet in him, in his loins, was all 
 God's church at that time contained. 
 
 In the calling Abraham, it is easy to see that there 
 was no other way for God to form a church, that is to 
 11* 
 
126 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 say, to single out a people to himself, as the world was 
 then stated, but by immediate revelation, arid a voice 
 from heaven. All mankind were gone over to the 
 enemy, overwhelmed in idolatry: in a word were en- 
 gaged to the Devil ; God Almighty, or, as the Scrip- 
 ture distinguishes him, the Lord, the true God, was 
 out of the question; mankind knew little or nothing of 
 him; much less did they know anything of his wor- 
 ship, or that there was such a being in the world. 
 
 Well might it be said the Lord appeared to Abraham, 
 Gen. xii. 7, for if God had not appeared himself, he 
 must have sent a messenger from heaven; and per- 
 haps it was so too, for he had not one true servant or 
 worshipper that we know of then on earth, to send on 
 that errand; no prophet, no preacher of righteousness. 
 Noah was dead, and had been so above seventeen 
 years ; and if he had not, his preaching, as I observed, 
 after his great miscarriage, had but little effect. We 
 are indeed told that Noah left behind him certain rules 
 and orders for the true worship of God, which were 
 called the precepts of Noah, and remained in the world 
 for a long time ; though how written, when neither 
 any letters, much less writing, were known in the 
 world, is a difficulty which remains to be solved ; and 
 this makes me look upon those laws called the precepts 
 of Noah to be a modern invention, as I do also the 
 Alphabetum Noachi, which Bochart pretends to give 
 an account of. 
 
 But to leave that fiction and come back to Abraham; 
 God called him, whether at first by voice without any 
 vision, whether in a dream, or night vision, which was 
 very significant in those days, or whether by some 
 awful appearance, we know not; the second time, it is 
 indeed said expressly, God appeared to him. Be it 
 which way it will, God himself called him, showed 
 him the land of Canaan, gave him the promise of it 
 for his posterity, and withal gave him such a faith, 
 that the Devil soon found there was no room for him 
 to meddle with Abraham. This is certain, we do not 
 read that the Devil ever so much as attempted Abra- 
 ham at all. Some will suggest that the command to 
 Abraham to go and offer up his son Isaac, was a temp- 
 tation of the Devil, if possible, to defeat the glorious 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 127 
 
 work of God's calling an holy seed into the world. 
 For the first, if Abraham had disobeyed that call, the 
 new favorite had been overcome, arid made a rebel of; 
 or, secondly, if he had obeyed, then the promised seed 
 had been cut off, and Abraham defeated ; but as the 
 text is express, that God himself proposed it to Abra- 
 ham, I shall not start, the suggestions of the critics, in 
 bar of the sacred oracle. 
 
 Be it one way or other, Abraham showed an hero- 
 like faith and courage; and, if the Devil had been the 
 author of it, he had seen himself disappointed in both 
 his views; 1, by Abraham's ready and bold compli- 
 ance, as believing it to be God's command; and 2, by 
 the divine countermand of the execution, just as the 
 fatal knife was lifted up. 
 
 But if the Devil left Abraham, and made no attack 
 upon him, seeing him invulnerable, he made himself 
 amends upon the other branch of his family, his poor 
 nephew Lot; who, notwithstanding he was so imme- 
 diately under the particular care of heaven, as that 
 the angel who was sent to destroy Sodom, could do 
 nothing till he was out of it ; and who, though after he 
 had left Zoar, and was retired into a cave to dwell, 
 yet the subtle Devil found him out, deluded his two 
 daughters, took an advantage of the fright they had 
 been in about Sodom and Gomorrah, made them 
 believe the whole world was burnt too, as well as 
 those cities, and that, in short, they could never have 
 any husbands, &c., and so, in their abundant concern 
 to repeople the world, and that the race of mankind 
 might not be destroyed, they go and lie with their own 
 father; the Devil telling them doubtless how to do it, 
 by intoxicating his head with wine ; in all which 
 story, whether they were not as drunk as their father, 
 seems to be a question ; or else they could not have 
 supposed all the men in the earth were consumed, 
 when they knew that the little city Zoar had been 
 preserved for their sakes. 
 
 This now was the third conquest Satan obtained by 
 the gust of human appetite ; that is to say, once by 
 eating, and twice by drinking, or drunkenness; and 
 still the last was the worst, and most shameful ; for 
 
128 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Lot, however his daughters managed him, could not 
 pretend he did not understand what the strength of 
 wine was; and one would have thought, after so terri- 
 ble a judgment as that of Sodom was, which was, as 
 we may say, executed before his face, his thoughts 
 should have been too solemnly engaged in praising 
 God for sparing his life, to be made drunk, and that 
 two nights together. 
 
 But the Devil played his game sure, he set his two 
 daughters to work ; and as the Devil's instruments 
 seldom fail, so he secured his by that hellish stratagem 
 of deluding the daughters to think all the world was 
 consumed but they two, and their father. To be sure 
 the old man could not suspect that his daughters' 
 design was so wicked as indeed it was, or that they 
 intended to debauch him with wine, and make him 
 drink till he knew not what he did. 
 
 Now the Devil, having carried his game here, 
 gained a great point ; for as there were but two 
 religious families in the world before, from whence a 
 twofold generation might be supposed to rise, religious 
 and righteous like their parents, namely, that of Abra- 
 ham, and this of Lot ; this crime ruined the hopes of 
 one of them ; it could no more be said that just Lot 
 was in being, who vexed his righteous soul from day 
 to day with the wicked behavior of the people of 
 Sodom ; righteous Lot was degenerated into drunken, 
 incestuous Lot, Lot fallen from what he was, to be a 
 wicked and unrighteous man ; no pattern of virtue, no 
 reprover of the age, but a poor, fallen, degenerate 
 patriarch, who could now no more reprove or exhort, 
 but look down and be ashamed, and nothing to do 
 but to repent ; and see the poor mean excuses of all 
 the three : 
 
 Eve says, " The serpent beguiled me, and I did 
 eat." 
 
 Noah says, " my grandson beguiled me, or 
 
 the wine beguiled me, and I did drink." 
 
 Lot says, " My daughters beguiled me, and I also 
 did drink." 
 
 It is observable, that, as I said before, Noah was 
 silenced, and his preaching at an end, after that one 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 129 
 
 action, so the like may be said of Lot ; and, in short, 
 you never hear one more word of either of them after 
 it; as for mankind, both were useless to them; and 
 as to themselves, we never read of any of their repent- 
 ance, nor have we much reason to believe they did 
 repent. 
 
 From this attack of the Devil upon Lot, we hear 
 no more of the Devil being so busily employed as he 
 had been before in the world ; he had indeed but little 
 to do ; for all the rest of the world was his own, 
 lulled asleep under the witchcraft of idolatry, and are 
 so still. 
 
 But it could not be long that the Devil lay idle; as 
 soon as God called himself a people, the Devil could 
 not be at rest till he attacked them. 
 
 " Wherever God sets up an house of prayer, 
 The Devil always builds a chapel there." 
 
 Abraham indeed went off the stage free, and so did 
 Isaac too ; they were a kind of first-rate saints ; we do 
 not so much as read of any failing they had, or of any- 
 thing the Devil had ever the face to offer to them ; no, 
 or with Jacob either, if you will excuse him for beguil- 
 ing his brother Esau of both his birthright and his 
 blessing; but he was busy enough with all his chil- 
 dren ; for example, 
 
 He sent Judah to his sheep-shearing, and placed 
 Tamar in his way, in the posture of temptation ; so 
 made him commit incest. 
 
 He sent incestuous Reuben to take his father's con- 
 cubine, Bilhah. 
 
 He sent Dinah to the ball, to dance with the She- 
 chernite ladies, and play the sinner with their master. 
 
 He enraged Simeon and Levi at the supposed 
 injury, and then prompted them to revenge ; for which 
 their father heartily cursed them. 
 
 He set them all together to fall upon poor Joseph, 
 first to murder him intentionally, and then actually 
 sell him to the Midianites. 
 
 He made them show the party-colored coat, and tell 
 a lie to their father, to make the poor old man believe 
 Joseph was killed by a lion, &c. 
 
130 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 He sent Potiphar's wife to attack Joseph's chastity, 
 and filled her with rage at the disappointment. 
 
 He taught Joseph to swear by the life of Pharaoh. 
 
 In a word, he debauched the whole race, except 
 Benjamin ; and never man had such a set of sons ; so 
 wicked, and so notorious, after so good an introduction 
 into the world as they all of them had, to be sure; for 
 Jacob, no doubt, gave them as good instruction as the 
 circumstances of his wandering condition would allow 
 him to do. 
 
 We must now consider the Devil and his affairs in 
 a quite differing situation. When the world first 
 appeared peopled by the creating power of God, he 
 had only Adam and Eve to take care of, and I think 
 he plied his time with them to purpose enough. After 
 the deluge he had Noah only to pitch upon, and he 
 quickly conquered him by the instigation of his grand- 
 son. 
 
 At the building of Babel he guided them by their 
 acting all in a body, as one man ; so that, in short, he 
 managed them with ease, taking them as a body 
 politic ; and we find they came into his snare as one 
 man; but now, the children of Israel multiplying in 
 the land of their bondage, and God seeming to show a 
 particular concern for them, the Devil was obliged to 
 new measures, stand at a distance, and look on for 
 some time. 
 
 The Egyptians were plagued even without his help; 
 for, though the cunning artist, as I said, stood and 
 looked on, yet he durst not meddle ; nor could he 
 make a few lice, the least and meanest of the armies 
 of insects raised to afflict the Egyptians. 
 
 However, when he perceived that God resolved to 
 bring the Israelites out, he prepared to attend them, to 
 watch them, and be at hand upon all the wicked 
 occasions that might offer; as if he had been fully sat- 
 isfied such occasions would offer, and that he should 
 not fail to have an opportunity to draw them into 
 some snare or other ; and that therefore it was his 
 business not to be out of the way, but to be ready (as 
 we say) to make his market of them in the best man- 
 ner he could. How many ways he attempted them, 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 131 
 
 nay, how many times he conquered them in their 
 journey, we shall see presently. 
 
 First he put them in a fright at Baal-Zephon, 
 where he thought he had drawn them into a noose, 
 and where he sent Pharaoh and his army to block 
 them up between the mountains of Pihahiroth and the 
 Red Sea ; but there indeed Satan was outwitted by 
 Moses, so far ajs it appeared to be an human action ; 
 for he little thought of their going dry-footed through 
 the sea, but depended upon having them all cut in 
 pieces the next morning by the Egyptians ; an eminent 
 proof, by the way, that the Devil has no knowledge 
 of events, or any insight into futurity; nay, that he 
 has not so much as a second sight, or knows to-day 
 what his Maker intends to do to-morrow; for had 
 Satan known that God intended to ford them over the 
 sea, if he had not been able to have prevented the 
 miracle, he would certainly have prevented the escape, 
 by sending out Pharaoh and his army time enough to 
 have taken the strand before them, and so have driven 
 them to the necessity of travelling on foot round the 
 north point of that sea, by the wilderness of Etan, 
 where he would have pursued and harassed them with 
 his cavalry, and in all probability have destroyed 
 them : but the blind, short-sighted Devil, perfectly in 
 the dark, and unacquainted with futurity, knew 
 nothing of the matter, was as much deceived as 
 Pharaoh himself, stood still, flattering himself with 
 the hopes of his booty, and the revenge he should take 
 upon them the next morning ; till he saw the frighted 
 waves in an uproar, and to his utter astonishment and 
 confusion, saw the passage laid open, and Moses lead- 
 ing his vast army in full march over the dry space; 
 nay, even then it is very probable Satan diAnot know 
 that if the Egyptians followed them, the sea would 
 return upon and overwhelm them ; for I can hardly 
 think so hard of the Devil himself, that if he had, he- 
 would have suffered, much less prompted Pharaoh to 
 follow the chase at such an expense ; so that either he 
 must be an ignorant, unforeseeing Devil, or a very un- 
 grateful, false Devifto his friends the Egyptians. 
 
 I am inclined ~also to the more charitable opinion of 
 Satan too, because the escape of the Israelites was 
 
132 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 really a triumph over himself; for the war was cer- 
 tainly his, or at least he was auxiliary to Pharaoh ; it 
 was a victory over hell arid Egypt together ; and he 
 would never have suffered the disgrace, if he had 
 known it beforehand ; that is to say, though he could 
 not have prevented the escape of Israel, or the dividing 
 the water, yet he might have warned the Egyptians, 
 and cautioned them not to venture in after them. 
 
 But we shall see a great many weak steps taken by 
 the Devil in the affair of this very people, and their 
 forty years' wandering in the wilderness ; and, though 
 he was in some things successful, and wheedled them 
 into many foolish and miserable murmurings and 
 wranglings against God, and mutinies against poor 
 Moses, yet the Devil was oftentimes balked and dis- 
 appointed ; and it is for this reason that I choose to 
 finish the first part of his history with the particular 
 relation of his behavior among the Jews, because also 
 we do not find any extraordinary things happening 
 anywhere else in the world for above one thousand 
 five hundred years, no variety, no revolutions ; all the 
 rest of mankind lay still under his yoke, quietly sub- 
 mitted to his government, did just as he bade them, 
 worshipped every idol he set up. and, in a word, he 
 had no difficulty with any body but the Jews ; and, 
 for this reason, I say, this part of his story will be the 
 more useful and instructing. 
 
 To return therefore to Moses, and his dividing the 
 Red Sea ; that the people went, over or through it, that 
 we have the sacred history for ; but how the Devil 
 behaved, that you must come to me for, or I know not 
 where you will find a true account of it, at least not 
 in print. 
 
 1. It was in the night they marched through ; 
 whether the Devil saw it in the dark or no, that is not 
 my business. 
 
 But when he had day-light for it, and viewed the 
 next day's work, I make no question but all hell felt 
 the surprise, the prey being thus snatched out of their 
 hands unexpectedly. It is true the Egyptians' host was 
 sent to him in their room ; but that was not what he 
 aimed at; for he was sure enough of them his own 
 way, and if it was not just at that time, yet he knew 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 133 
 
 what and who they were ; but as he had devoured the 
 whole Israelitish host in his imagination, to the tune 
 of at least a million and an half of souls ; men, women, 
 and children ; it was, no doubt, a great disappointment 
 to the Devil to miss of his prey, and to see them all 
 triumphing on the other side in safety. 
 
 It is true, Satan's annals do not mention this defeat ; 
 for historians are generally backward to register their 
 own misfortunes; but as we have an account of the 
 fact from other hands, so as we cannot question the 
 truth of it; the nature of the thing will tell us it was 
 a disappointment to the Devil, and a very great one 
 too. 
 
 I cannot but observe here, that I think this part of 
 the Devil's story very entertaining, because of the 
 great variety of incidents which appear in every part 
 of it; sometimes he is like an hunted fox, curvetting 
 and counter-running to avoid his being pursued and 
 found out, while at the same time he is carrying on his 
 secret designs to draw the people he pretends to man- 
 age, into some snare or other, to their hurt; at another 
 time, though the comparison is a little too low for his 
 dignity, like a monkey that has done mischief, and 
 which, making his own escape, sits and chatters at a 
 distance, as if he had triumphed in what he had done; 
 so Satan, when he had drawn them in to worship a 
 calf, to offer strange fire, to set up a schism, and the 
 like ; and so to bring the Divine vengeance upon them- 
 selves; leaving them in their distress, kept at a dis- 
 tance, as if he looked on with satisfaction to see them 
 burnt, swallowed up, swept away, and the like; as 
 the several stories relate. 
 
 His indefatigable vigilance is, on the other hand, an 
 useful caveat, as Avell as an improving view to us; no 
 sooner is he routed and exposed, defeated and disap- 
 pointed in one enterprize, but he begins another, and, 
 like a cunning gladiator, warily defends himself, and 
 boldly attacks his enemy at the same time. Thus we 
 see him up and down, conquering and conquered, 
 through this whole part of his story, till, at last, he 
 receives a total defeat; of which you shall hear in its 
 place. In the mean time, let us take up his story again 
 at the Red Sea, where he received a great blow, instead 
 12 
 
134 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 of which he expected a complete victory ; for, doubtless, 
 the Devil and the king of Egypt too, thought of nothing 
 but conquest at Pihahiroth. 
 
 However, though the triumph of the Israelites over 
 the Egyptians must needs be a great mortification to 
 the Devil, and exasperated him very much, yet the 
 consequence was only this; namely, that Satan, like 
 an enemy who is balked and defeated, but not over- 
 come, redoubles his rage, and reinforces his army, and 
 what the Egyptians could not do for him, he resolves 
 to do for himself. In order then to take his opportu- 
 nity for what mischief might offer, being defeated, and 
 provoked, I say, at the slur that was put upon him. he 
 resolves to follow them into the wilderness, and many 
 a vile prank he played them there ; as first, he straitens 
 them for water, and makes them murmur against God, 
 and against Moses, within a very few days, nay, hours, 
 of their great deliverance of all. 
 
 Nor was this all, but in less than one year more we 
 find them (at his instigation too) setting up a golden 
 calf, arid making all the people dance about it at 
 Mount Sinai ; even when God himself had but just 
 before appeared to them in the terrors of a burning fire 
 upon the top of the mountain ; and what was the pre- 
 tence? Truly, nothing but that they had lost Moses, 
 who used to be their guide, and he had hid himself in 
 the mount, and had not been seen in forty days ; so 
 that they could not tell what was become of him. 
 This put them all into confusion. A poor pretence 
 indeed, to turn them all back to idolatry ! But the 
 watchful Devil took the hint, pushed the advantage, 
 and insinuated, that they should never see Moses 
 again ; that he was certainly devoured by venturing 
 too near the flashes of fire in the mount, and presum- 
 ing upon the liberty he had taken before. In a word, 
 that God had destroyed Moses, or he was starved to 
 death for want of food, having been forty days and 
 forty nights absent. 
 
 All these were, it is true, in themselves most foolish 
 suggestions, considering Moses was admitted to the 
 vision of God, and that God had been pleased to appear 
 to him in the most intimate manner; that, as they 
 might depend God would not destroy his faithful ser- 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 135 
 
 vant, so they might have concluded he was ahle to 
 support his being without food as long as he thought 
 fit. But to a people so easy to believe anything, what 
 could be too gross for the Devil to persuade them to? 
 
 A people who could dance round a calf, and call it 
 their God, might do anything; that could say to one 
 another, that this was the Great Jehovah, that 
 brought them out of the land of Egypt ; and that 
 within so few days after God's miraculous appearance 
 to them, and for them ; I say, such a people were 
 really fitted to be imposed upon, nothing could be too 
 gross for them. 
 
 This was indeed his first considerable experiment 
 upon them as a people, or as a body; and the truth is, 
 his affairs required it; for Satan, who had been a suc- 
 cessful Devil in most of his attempts upon mankind, 
 could hardly doubt of success in anything after he had 
 carried his point at Mount Sinai. To bring them to 
 idolatry in the very face of their deliverer, and just 
 after the deliverance ! It was more astonishing in the 
 main than even their passing the Red Sea. In a word, 
 the Devil's whole history doth not furnish us with a 
 story equally surprising. 
 
 And how was poor Aaron bewildered in it too ! He 
 that was Moses' partner in all the great things that 
 Moses did in Pharaoh's sight, and that was appointed 
 to be his assistant and oracle, or orator rather, upon all 
 public occasions ; that he, above all the rest, should 
 come into this absurd and ridiculous proposal, he that 
 was singled out for the sacred priesthood, for him to 
 defile his holy hands with a polluted abominable sacri- 
 fice, and with making the idol for them too (for it is 
 plain that he made it,) how monstrous it was ! 
 
 And see what an answer he gives to his brother 
 Moses, how weak ! how simple ! I did so and so, in- 
 deed; I bade them bring the ear-rings, &c., and I cast 
 the gold into the fire, and it ca'me out this calf. Ridi- 
 culous ! as if the calf came. out by mere fortuitous ad- 
 venture, without a mould to cast it in : which could 
 not be supposed. And if it had not come out so with- 
 out a mould, Moses would certainly have known of it. 
 Had Aaron been innocent, he would have answered 
 after quite another manner, and told Moses honestly, 
 
136 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 that the whole body of the people came to him in a 
 fright, that they forced him to make them an idol ; 
 which he did, by making first the proper mould to 
 cast it in, and then taking the proper rnetal to cast it 
 from. That indeed he had sinned in so doing, but that 
 he was mobbed into it, and the people terrified him, 
 perhaps they threatened to kill him; and, if he had 
 added, that the Devil, prompting his fear, beguiled 
 him, he had said nothing but what was certainly true; 
 for if it was in Satan's power to make the people inso- 
 lent and outrageous enough to threaten and bully the 
 old venerable prophet, (for he was not yet a priest.) 
 who was the brother of their oracle Moses, and had 
 been partner with him in so many of his commissions ; 
 I say, if he could bring up the passions of the people 
 to an height to be rude and unmannerly to him, (Aaron.) 
 and perhaps to threaten and insult him, he may be 
 easily supposed to be able to intimidate Aaron, and 
 terrify him into a compliance. 
 
 See this cunning agent, when he has man's destruc- 
 tion in his view, how securely he acts ! he never wants 
 an handle; the best of men have one weak place or 
 other, and he always finds it out, takes the advantage 
 of it, and conquers them by one artifice or another; 
 only take it with you as you go, it is always by strat- 
 agem, never by force ; a proof that he is riot empowered 
 to use violence. He may tempt, and he does prevail ; 
 but it is all legerdemain, it is all craft and artifice ; he 
 is still diabole, the calumniator and deceiver, that is, 
 the misrepresenter ; he misrepresents man to God. and 
 misrepresents God to man ; also he misrepresents 
 things ; he puts false colors, and then manages the eye 
 to see them with an imperfect view, raising clouds and 
 fogs to intercept our sight; in short, he deceives all 
 our senses, and imposes upon us in things which 
 otherwise would be the easiest to discern and judge of. 
 
 This indeed is in parf the benefit of the Devil's his- 
 tory, to let us see that he has used the same method 
 all along; and that ever since he has had anything to 
 do with mankind, he has practised upon them with 
 stratagem and cunning; also it is observable that he 
 has carried his point better that way than he would 
 have done by fury and violence, if he had been allowed 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 137 
 
 to make use of it ; for by his power indeed he might 
 have laid the world desolate, and made an heap of 
 rubbish of it long ago; but, as I have observed before, 
 that would not have answered his ends half so well; 
 for by destroying men he would have made martyrs, 
 and sent abundance of good men to heaven, who 
 would much rather have died than yielded to serve 
 him, and, as he aimed to have it, to fall down and 
 worship him; I say, he would have made martyrs, 
 arid that not a few. But this was none of Satan's 
 business ; his design lies quite another way ; his busi- 
 ness is to make men sin, not to make them suffer ; to 
 make devils of them, not saints; to delude them, and 
 draw them away from their Maker, not send them 
 away to him ; and therefore he works by stratagem, 
 not by force. 
 
 We are now come to his story, as it relates to the 
 Jewish church in the wilderness, and to the children 
 of Israel in their travelling circumstances ; and this 
 was the first scene of public management that the 
 Devil had upon his hands in the world ; for, as I 
 have said, till now, he dealt with mankind either in 
 their separate condition -one by one, or else carried all 
 before him, engrossing whole nations in his systems 
 of idolatry, and overwhelming them in an ignorant 
 destruction. 
 
 But having now a whole people as it were snatched 
 away from him, taken out of his government, and, 
 which was still worse, having a view of a kingdom 
 being set up independent of him, and superior to his 
 authority, it is not to be wondered at if he endeavored 
 to overthrow them in the infancy of their constitution, 
 and tried all possible arts to bring them back into his 
 own hands again. 
 
 He found them not only carried away from the 
 country where they were even in his clutches, sur- 
 rounded with idols, and where we have reason to be- 
 lieve the greatest part of them were polluted with the 
 idolatry of the Egyptians ; for we do not read of any 
 stated worship which they had of their own ; or if they 
 did worship the true God, we scarce know in what 
 manner they did it; they had no law given them, 
 nothing but the covenant of circumcision, and even 
 12* 
 
138 THE HISTORY OF THE t)EVlL. 
 
 Moses himself had not strictly observed that, till he 
 was frightened into it; we read of no sacrifices among 
 them, no feasts were ordained, no solemn worship ap- 
 pointed ; and how, or in what manner, they performed 
 their homage, we know not ; the passover was not or- 
 dained till just at their coming away; so that, there 
 was not much religion among them, at least that we 
 have any account of; and we may suppose the Devil 
 was pretty easy with them all the while they were in 
 the house of their bondage. 
 
 But now, to have a million of people fetched out of 
 his hands, as it were all at once, and to have the im- 
 mediate power of heaven engaged in it, and that Satan 
 saw evidently God had singled them out in a miracu- 
 lous manner to favor them, and call them his own ; 
 this alarmed him at once ; and therefore he resolves to 
 follow them, lay close siege to them, and take all the 
 measures possible to bring them to rebel against, and 
 disobey God, that he might be provoked to destroy 
 them ; and how near he went to bring it to pass, we 
 shall see presently. 
 
 This making a calf, and paying an idolatrous wor- 
 ship to it (for they acted the heathens and idolaters, 
 not in the setting up the calf only, but in the manner 
 of their worshipping, namely, dancing and music, 
 things they had not been acquainted with in the wor- 
 ship of the true God,) I mention here, to observe how 
 the Devil not only imposed upon their principles, but 
 upon their senses too ; as if the awful majesty of hea- 
 ven, whose glory they had seen in mount Sinai, where 
 they stood, and whose pillar of cloud and fire was 
 their guide and protection, would be worshipped by 
 dancing round a calf ! and that not a living creature, 
 or a real calf, but the mere image of a calf cast in gold, 
 or, as some think, in brass gilded over. 
 
 But this was the Devil's way with mankind, namely, 
 to impose upon their senses, and bring them into the 
 grossest follies and absurdities; and then, having first 
 made them fools, it was much the easier making them 
 offenders. 
 
 In this very manner he acted with them through all 
 the course of their wilderness travels; for, as they 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 139 
 
 were led by the hand like children, defended by om- 
 nipotence, fed by miracles, instructed immediately from 
 heaven, and in all things had Moses for their guide; 
 they had no room to miscarry, but by acting the great- 
 est absurdities, and committing the greatest follies in 
 nature ; and, even these, the Devil brought them to be 
 guilty of, in a surprising manner. 1. As God himself 
 relieved them in every exigence, and supplied them in 
 every want, one would think it was impossible they 
 should be ever brought to question either his willing- 
 ness or his ability, and yet they really objected against 
 both, which was indeed very provoking; and 1 doubt 
 not, that when the Devil had brought them to act in 
 such a preposterous manner, he really hoped and be- 
 lieved God would be provoked effectually. The testi- 
 monies of his care of them, and ability to supply them, 
 were miraculous and undeniable ; he gave them water 
 from the rock, bread from the air, sent the fowls to 
 feed them with flesh, and supported them all the way 
 by miracles ; their health was preserved, none were 
 sick among them, their clothes did not wear out, nor 
 their shoes grow old upon their feet; could anything 
 be more absurd than to doubt, whether he could pro- 
 vide for them, who had never let them want for so 
 many years? 
 
 But the Devil managed them in spite of miracles ; 
 nor did he ever give them over till he had brought 
 six hundred thousand of them to provoke God so highly 
 that he would not suffer above two of them to go into 
 the land of promise; so that, in short, Satan gained 
 his point as to that generation, for all their carcases 
 fell in the wilderness. Let us take but a short view 
 to what an height he brought them, and in what a 
 rude, absurd manner they acted ; how he set them 
 upon murmuring upon every occasion, now for water, 
 then for bread ; nay, they murmured at their bread 
 when they had it; "Our soul loaths this light bread." 
 
 He sowed the seeds of church-rebellion in the sons 
 of Aaron, and made Nadab and Abihu offer strange 
 fire till they were strangely consumed by fire for the 
 doing it. 
 
 He set them a complaining at Taberah, and a lusting 
 
140 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 for flesh at the first three days' journey from mount 
 Sinai. 
 
 He planted envy in the hearts of Miriam and Aaron, 
 against the authority of Moses, to pretend God had 
 spoken by them as well as by him, till he humbled the 
 father, and made a leper of the daughter. 
 
 He debauched ten of the spies, frighted them with 
 sham appearances of things, when they went out to 
 search the land; and made them fright the whole 
 people out of their understanding as well as duty, for 
 which six hundred thousand of their carcases fell in 
 the wilderness. 
 
 He raised the rebellion of Korah, and the two hun- 
 dred and fifty princes, till he brought them to be swal- 
 lowed up alive. 
 
 He put Moses into a passion at Meribah, and ruffled 
 the temper of the meekest man upon earth ; by which 
 he made both him and Aaron forfeit their share of the 
 promise, and be shut out from the holy land. 
 
 He raised a mutiny among them when they travelled 
 from mount Hor, till they brought fiery serpents among 
 them to destroy them. 
 
 He tried to make Balaam the prophet curse them ; 
 but there the Devil was disappointed. However, he 
 brought the Midianites to debauch them with women, 
 as in the case of Zimri and Cozbi. 
 
 He tempted Achan with the wedge of gold, and the 
 Babylonish garment, that he might take off the accursed 
 thing, and be destroyed. 
 
 He tempted the whole people, not effectually to drive 
 out the cursed inhabitants of the land of promise, that 
 they might remain, and be goads in their sides, till, at 
 last, they often oppressed them for their idolatry, and, 
 which was worse, debauched them to idolatry. 
 
 He prompted the Benjamites to refuse satisfaction to 
 the people, in the case of the wickedness of the men of 
 Gibeah, to the destruction of the whole tribe, six hun- 
 dred men excepted in the rock Rimmon. 
 
 At last he tempted them to reject the theocracy of 
 their Maker, and call upon Samuel to make them a 
 king ; and most of those kings he made plagues and 
 sorrows to them in their time, as you shall hear in 
 their order. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Thus he plagued the whole body of the people con- 
 tinually, making them sin against God, and bring 
 judgments upon themselves, to the consuming some 
 millions of them, first and last, by the vengeance of 
 their Maker. 
 
 As he did with the whole congregation, so he did 
 with their rulers, and several of the judges, who were 
 made instruments to deliver the people; yet were 
 drawn into snares by this subtle serpent, to ruin them- 
 selves, or the people they had delivered. 
 
 He tempted Gideon to make an ephod contrary 
 to the law of the tabernacle; and made the children 
 of Israel go a whoring (that is, a worshipping,) after it. 
 
 He tempted Samson to debauch himself with an 
 harlot, and betray his own happy secret to a harlot, 
 at the expense of both his eyes, and at last, of his 
 life. 
 
 He tempted Eli's sons to sin at the very doors of the 
 tabernacle, when they came to bring their offerings to 
 the priest ; and he tempted poor Eli to connive at them, 
 or not sufficiently reprove them. 
 
 He tempted the people to carry the ark of God into 
 the camp, that it might fall into the hands of the Phi- 
 listines. And 
 
 He tempted Uzzah to reach out his hand to hold it 
 up; as if he that had preserved it in the house of Da- 
 gon the idol of the Philistines, could not keep it from 
 falling out of the cart. 
 
 When the people had gotten a king, he immediately 
 set to work in divers ways to bring that king to load 
 them with plagues and calamities not a few. 
 
 He tempted Saul to spare the king of Amelek, con- 
 trary to God's express command. 
 
 He not only tempted Saul, but possessed him with 
 an evil spirit, by which he was left to wayward dispo- 
 sitions, and was forced to have it fiddled out of him 
 with a minstrel. 
 
 He tempted Saul with a spirit of discontent, and 
 with a spirit of envy at poor David, to hunt him like a 
 partridge upon the mountains. 
 
 He tempted Saul with a spirit of divination, and 
 sent him to a witch to inquire of Samuel for him; as 
 
143 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 if God would help him when he was dead, that had 
 forsaken him when he was alive. 
 
 After that, he tempted him to kill himself, on a pre- 
 tence that he might not fall into the hands of the un- 
 circnmcised; as if self-murder was not half so bad, 
 either for sin against God, or disgrace among men, as 
 being taken prisoner by a Philistine ! A piece of mad- 
 ness none but the Devil could have brought mankind 
 to submit to, though some ages after that he made it a 
 fashion among the Romans. 
 
 After Saul was dead, and David came to the throne, 
 by how much he was a man chosen and particularly 
 favored by Heaven, the Devil fell upon him with the 
 more vigor, attacked him so many ways, and con- 
 quered him so very often, that as no man was so good 
 a king, so hardly any good king was ever a worse 
 man; in many cases one would have almost thought 
 the Devil had made sport with David, to show how 
 easily he could overthrow the best man God could 
 choose of the whole congregation. 
 
 He made him distrust his benefactor so much as to 
 feign himself mad before the king of Gath, when he 
 had fled to him for shelter. 
 
 He made him march with his four hundred cut- 
 throats, to cut off poor Nabal, and all his household, 
 only because he would not send him the good cheer he 
 had provided for his honest sheep-shearers. 
 
 He made him, for his word's sake, give Ziba half 
 his master's estate for his treachery, after he knew he 
 had been the traitor, and betrayed poor Mephibosheth 
 for the sake of it ; in which 
 
 " The good old king, it seems, was very loth, 
 To break his word, and therefore broke his oath." 
 
 Then he tempted him to the ridiculous project of 
 numbering the people, though against God's express 
 command ; a thing Joab himself was not wicked 
 enough to do, till David and the Devil forced him 
 to it. 
 
 And to make him completely wickepl, he carried him 
 to the top of his house, and showed him Uriah's wife, 
 bathing in her garden. In which it appeared that the 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 143 
 
 Devil knew David too well, and what was the parti- 
 cular sin of his inclination; and so took him by the 
 right handle; drawing him at once into the sins of 
 murder and adultery. 
 
 Then, that he might not quite give him over, (though 
 David's repentance for the last sin kept the Devil off 
 for a while,) when he could attack him no farther per- 
 sonally, he fell upon him in his family, and made him 
 as miserable as he could desire him to be, in his chil- 
 dren ; three of whom he brought to destruction before 
 his face, and another after his death. 
 
 First, he tempted Ammon to ravish his sister, Tamar; 
 so there was an end of her, poor girl, as to this world ; 
 for we never hear any more of her. 
 
 Then he tempted Absalom to murder his brother 
 Ammon, in reveuge for Tamar's virtue. 
 
 Then he made Joab run Absalom through the body, 
 contrary to David's command. 
 
 And after David's death he brought Adonijah (weak 
 man!) to the block, for usurping king Solomon's 
 throne. 
 
 As to Absalom, he tempted him to rebellion, and 
 raising war against his father, to the turning him 
 shamefully out of Jerusalem, and almost out of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 He tempted him for David's farther mortification, 
 to insult his father's wives, in the face of the whole 
 city; and, had Achitophel's honest counsel been fol- 
 lowed, he had certainly sent him to sleep with his 
 fathers, long before his time but there Satan and 
 Achitophel were both outwitted together. 
 
 Through all the reigns of the several successors of 
 David, the Devil took care to carry on his own game, 
 to the continual insulting the measures which God 
 himself had taken for the establishing his people in the 
 world, and especially as a church : till at last he so 
 effectually debauched them to idolatry ; that crime 
 which of all others was most provoking to God, as it 
 was carrying the people away from their allegiance, 
 and transposing the homage they owed God their 
 Maker, to a contemptible block of wood, or an image 
 of a brute beasl . ; and this how sordid and brutish 
 soever it was in itself, yet so did his artifice prevail 
 
144 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 among them, that, first or last, he brought them all 
 into it, the ten tribes as well as the two tribes; till, at 
 last, God himself was provoked to unchurch them, 
 gave them up to their enemies, and the few that were 
 left of them, after incredible slaughters and desolation, 
 were hurried away, some into Tartary, and others into 
 Babylon, from whence very few, of that few that were 
 carried away, ever found their way home again ; and 
 some, when they might have come, would not accept 
 of it, but continued there to the very coming of the 
 Messiah. See epistles of Su James, and of St. Peter, 
 at the beginning. 
 
 But to look a little back upon this part (for it cannot 
 be omitted, it makes so considerable a part of the 
 Devil's history;) I mean his drawing God's people, 
 kings and all, into all the sins and mischiefs which 
 gradually contributed to their destruction : 
 
 First, (for he began immediately with the very best 
 and wisest of the race,) he drew in King Solomon, in 
 the midst of all his zeal for the building God's house, 
 and for the making the most glorious and magnificent 
 appearance for God's worship that ever the world saw 
 I say, in the middle of all this, he drew him into such 
 immoderate and insatiable an appetite for fame, as to 
 set up the first, and perhaps the greatest seraglio that 
 ever any prince in the world had, or pretended to be- 
 fore ; nay, and to bring it so much into reputation, that, 
 as the text says, Seven hundred of them were prin- 
 cesses; that is to say, ladies of quality: not as the 
 grand signers, and great moguls (other princes of the 
 Eastern world,) have since practised, namely, to pick 
 up their most beautiful slaves ; but these, it seems, 
 were women of rank, king's daughters, as Pharaoh's 
 daughter, and the daughters of the princes and prime 
 men among the Moabites, Ammonites, Zidonians, Hit- 
 tites, &c. 1 Kings xi. 1. 
 
 Nor was this all ; but as he drew him into the love 
 of those forbidden women (for such they were, as to 
 their nation, as well as number,) so he ensnared him 
 by those women to a familiarity with their worship; 
 and by degrees brought that famous prince (famous 
 for his wisdom) to be the greatest and most imposed- 
 upon old fool in the world ; bowing down to those 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 145 
 
 idols by the enticing of his women, whom he had ab- 
 horred and detested in his youth, as dishonoring that 
 God for whom, and for whose worship, he had finished 
 and dedicated the most magnificent building and tem- 
 ple in the world. Nothing but the invincible subtlety 
 of this arch-devil could ever have brought such a man 
 as Solomon to such a degeneracy of manners, and to 
 such meannesses; no, not his Devil himself, without 
 the assistance of his agents, nor the agents themselves, 
 without the Devil to help them. 
 
 As to Solomon, Satan had made conquest enough 
 there; we need hear no more of him. The next ad- 
 vance he made, was in the person of his son Rehoboam. 
 Had not the Devil prompted his pride, and tyrannical 
 humor, he would never have given the people such an 
 answer as he did ; and when he saw a fellow at the 
 head of them too, who he knew wanted and waited for 
 an occasion to raise a rebellion, and had ripened up the 
 people's humor to the occasion. Weil might the text 
 call it listening to the counsel of the young heads ; 
 that it was indeed with a vengeance ! but those young 
 heads too were acted by an old Devil, who, for his 
 craft, is called, as I have observed, the old Serpent. 
 
 Having thus paved the way, Jeroboam revolts. So 
 far God had directed him ; for the text says expressly, 
 speaking in the first person of God himself, "This 
 thing is of me." 
 
 But though God might appoint Jeroboam to be king 
 (that is to say, of ten tribes.) yet God did not appoint 
 him to set up the two calves in the two extreme parts 
 of the land; namely, in Dan, and in Bethel; that was 
 Jeroboam's own doing, and done on purpose to keep 
 the people from falling back to Rehoboam, by being 
 obliged to go to Jerusalem to the public worship. And 
 the text adds. "Jeroboam made Israel to sin." This 
 was indeed a master-piece of the Devil's policy, and it 
 was effectual to answer the end : nothing could have 
 been more to the purpose. What reason he had to 
 expect the people would so universally come into it, 
 and be so well satisfied with a couple of calves, instead 
 of the true worship of God at Jerusalem ; or what 
 arts and management he (Satan) made use of after- 
 wards, to bring the people in, to join with such a delu- 
 13 
 
146 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 sion ; that we find but little of in all the annals of 
 Satan ; nor is it much to the case. It is certain the 
 Devil found a strange kind of propensity to worship- 
 ping idols rooted in the temper of that whole people, 
 even from their first breaking away from the Egyptian 
 bondage; so that he had nothing to do but to work 
 upon the old stock, and propagate the crime that he 
 found was so natural to them. And this is Satan's 
 general way of working, not with them only, but with 
 us also, and with all the world, even then, and ever 
 since. 
 
 When he had thus secured Jeroboam's revolt, we 
 need not trace him among his successors; for the same 
 reason of state that held for the setting up the calves 
 at Bethel and Dan, held good for the keeping them up r 
 to all Jeroboam's posterity; nor had they one good 
 king ever after : even Jehu, who called his friends to 
 come and see his zeal for the Lord, and who fulfilled 
 the threatenings of God upon Ahab and his family, and 
 upon Queen Jezebel, and her offspring, and knew all the 
 white that he was executing the judgment of the true 
 God upon an idolatrous race ; yet he would not part 
 with his calves, but would have thought it had been 
 parting with his kingdom, and that as the people 
 would have gone up to Jerusalem to worship, so they 
 would at the same time have transferred their civil 
 obedience to the king of Judah (whose right it really 
 was, as far as they could claim by birth and right 
 line ;) so that, by the way, Satan any more than other 
 politicians, is not for the jus div'mum of lineal succes- 
 sion, or what we call hereditary right, any farther than 
 serves for his purpose. 
 
 Thus Satan ridded his hands of ten of the twelve 
 tribes; let us now see how he went on with the rest, 
 for his work was now brought into a narrower com- 
 pass ; the church of God was now reduced to two 
 tribes, except a few religious people, who separated 
 from the schism of Jeroboam, and came and planted 
 themselves among the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. 
 The first thing the Devil did after this, was to foment 
 a war between the two kings, while Judah was gov- 
 erned by a boy or youth, Abijah by name; and he 
 none of the best neither. But God's time was not 
 
I 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 147 
 
 come, and the Devil received a great disappointment ; 
 when Jeroboam was so entirely overthrown, that, if 
 the records of those ages do not mistake, no less than 
 five hundred thousand men of Israel were killed ; suck 
 a slaughter, that one would think the army of Judah, 
 had they known how to improve as well as gain a 
 victory, might have brought all the rest back again, 
 and have entirely reduced the house of Jeroboam, and 
 the ten tribes that followed him, to their obedience; 
 nay, they did take a great deal of the country from 
 them, and among the rest Bethel itself; and yet so 
 cunningly did Satan manage, that the king of Judah, 
 who was himself a wicked king, and perhaps an idol- 
 ater in his heart, did not take down the golden calf 
 that Jeroboam had there, no nor destroy the idolatry 
 itself; so that, in short, his victory signified nothing. 
 
 From hence to the captivity, we find the Devil busy 
 with the kings of Judah; especially the best of them. 
 As for such as Manasseh, and those who transgressed 
 by the general tenor of their lives, those he had no 
 great trouble with, 
 
 But such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, 
 he hung about them, and their courts, till he brought 
 every one of them into some mischief or other. 
 
 As first, good King Asa, of whom the Scripture 
 says, his heart was perfect all his days, yet this subtle 
 spirit, that could break in upon him nowhere else, 
 tempted him, when the king of Israel came out against 
 him, to send to hire Benhadad, the king of Syria, to 
 help him ; as if God, who had before enabled him to 
 conquer the Ethiopians with an army of ten hundred 
 thousand men, could not have saved him from the 
 king of the ten tribes. 
 
 In the same manner he tempted Jehoshaphat to join 
 with that wicked King Ahab against the king of Syria, 
 and also to marry his son to Ahab's daughter, which 
 was fatal to Jehoshaphat, and to his posterity. 
 
 Again, he tempted Hezekiah to show all his riches 
 to the king of Babylon's messengers ; and who can 
 doubt, but that he (Satan) is to be understood by the 
 wicked spirit which stood before the Lord, 2 Chron. 
 xviii. 20, and offered his service to entice Ahab the 
 king of Israel to come out to battle, to his ruin, by 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 being a lying spirit in the months of all his prophets; 
 and who, for that time, had a special commission, as 
 he had another time, in the case of Job ? and indeed, 
 it was a commission fit for nobody but the Devil : 
 "Thou shait entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: 
 Go out, and do even so," verse 21. 
 
 Even good Josiah himself, of whom it is recorded, 
 that "like him there was no king before him, neither 
 after him arose there any like him," 2 Kings xxiii. 25, 
 yet the Devil never left him with his machinations, 
 till, finding he could not tempt him to anything wicked 
 in his government, he tempted or moved him to a 
 needless war with the king of Egypt, in which he lost 
 his life. 
 
 From the death of this good king, the Devil prevailed 
 so with the whole nation of the Jews, and brought 
 them to such an incorrigible pitch of wickedness, that 
 God gave them up, forsook his habitation of glory, the 
 temple, which he suffered to be spoiled first, then burnt 
 and demolished; destroying the whole nation of the 
 Jews, except a small number that were left, and those 
 the enemy carried away into captivity. 
 
 Nor was he satisfied with this general destruction of 
 the whole people of Israel, for the ten tribes were gone 
 before ; but he followed them even into their captivity ; 
 those that fled away to Egypt, which they tell us were 
 seventy thousand, he first corrupted, and then they 
 were destroyed there, upon the overthrow of Egypt, 
 by the same king of Babylon. 
 
 Also he went very near to have them rooted out. 
 Young and old, man, woman, and child, who were in 
 captivity in Babylon, by the ministry of that true agent 
 of hell, Haman, the Agagite ; but there Satan met with 
 a disappointment too, as in the story of Esther, which 
 was but the fourth that he had met with, in all his 
 management since the creation; I say, there he was 
 disappointed, and his prime minister, Haman, was ex- 
 alted, as he deserved. 
 
 Having thus far traced the government and domin- 
 ion of the Devil, from the creation of man to the 
 captivity; I think I may call upon him to set up his 
 standard of universal empire, at that period; it seemed 
 just then as if God had really forsaken the earth, and 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 149 
 
 given the entire dominion of mankind up to his out- 
 rageous enemy the Devil ; for, excepting the few 
 Israelites which were left in the territories of the king 
 of Babylon, and they were but a few, I say, except 
 among them, there was not one corner of the world 
 left where the true God was called upon, or his 
 dominion so much as acknowledged ; all the world 
 was buried in idolatry, and that of so many horrid 
 kinds, that one would think, the light of reason should 
 have convinced mankind, that he who exacted such 
 bloody sacrifices as that of Moloch, and such a bloody 
 cutting themselves with knives, as the priests of Baal 
 did, could not be a God, a good and beneficent being, 
 but must be a cruel, voracious and devouring devil, 
 whose end was not the good, but the destruction of 
 his creatures. But to such a height was the blind, 
 dementated world arrived at that time, that in these 
 sordid and corrupt ways they went on worshipping 
 dumb idols, and offering human sacrifices to them ; 
 and, in a word, committing all the most horrid and 
 absurd abominations that they were capable of, or 
 that the Devil could prompt them too, till heaven was 
 again put, as it were, to the necessity of bringing 
 about a revolution, in favor of his own forsaken 
 people, by miracle and surprise, as he had done 
 before, 
 
 We come therefore to the restoration or return of 
 the captivity. Had Satan been able to have acted 
 anything by force, as I have observed before, all the 
 princes and powers of the world having been, as they 
 really were, at his devotion, he might easily have 
 made use of them, armed all the world against the 
 Jews, and prevented the rebuilding the temple, and 
 even the return of the captivity. 
 
 But now the Devil's power manifestly received a 
 check, and the hand of God appeared in it ; and that 
 he was resolved to reestablish his people the Jews, and 
 to have a second temple built. The Devil who knew 
 the extent of his own power too well, and what lim- 
 itations were laid upon him, stood still, as it were, 
 looking on, and not daring to oppose the return of the 
 captivity, which he very well knew had been pro- 
 phesied, and would come to pass, 
 13* 
 
150 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 He did indeed make some little opposition to the 
 building, and to the fortifying the city, but as it was 
 to no purpose, so he was soon obliged to give it over; 
 and thus the captivity being returned, and the temple 
 rebuilt, the people of the Jews increased and multi- 
 plied to an infinite number and strength ; and from 
 this time we may say, the power of the Devil rather 
 declined and decreased, than went on with success, as 
 it had done before : it is true the Jews fell into sects 
 and errors, and divisions of many kinds, after the 
 return from the captivity, and no doubt the Devil had 
 a great hand in those divisions ; but he could never 
 bring them back to idolatry; and his not being able to 
 do that, made him turn his hand so many ways to 
 plague and oppress them ; as particularly by Antiochus 
 the Great, who brought the abomination of desolation 
 into the holy place ; and there the Devil triumphed 
 over them for some time ; but they were delivered 
 many ways, till at last they came peaceably under the 
 protection rather than the dominion of the Roman 
 empire : when Herod the Great governed them as a 
 king, and reedified, nay, almost rebuilt their temple, 
 with so great an expense and magnificence, that he 
 made it, as some say, greater and more glorious than 
 that of Solomon's; though, that I take to be a great 
 fable, to say no worse of it. 
 
 In this condition the Jewish church stood, when the 
 fullness of time, as it is called in scripture, was 
 come ; and the Devil was kept at bay, though he had 
 made some encroachments upon them as above ; for 
 there was a glorious remnant of saints among them, 
 such as old Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, 
 and old Simeon, who waited for the salvation of 
 Israel ; I say, in this condition the Jewish church 
 stood when the Messiah came into the world ; which 
 was such another mortal stab to the thrones and prin- 
 cipalities infernal, as that of which I have spoken 
 already, (chap, iii.,) at the creation of man; and there- 
 fore, with this I break off the antiquities of the Devil's 
 history, or the ancient part of his kingdom ; for from 
 hence downward we shall find his empire has declined 
 gradually ; and though, by his wonderful address, his 
 prodigious application, and the vigilance and fidelity 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 151 
 
 of his instruments, as well human as infernal and 
 diabolical, and of the human as well the ecclesiastic 
 as the secular, he has many times retrieved what he 
 has lost, and sometimes bid fair for recovering the 
 universal empire he once possessed over mankind ; 
 yet he has been still defeated again, repulsed, and 
 beaten back, and his kingdom has greatly declined in 
 many parts of the world ; and especially in the north- 
 ern parts, except Great Britain ; and how he has 
 politically maintained his interest, and increased his 
 dominion among the wise and righteous generation 
 that we cohabit with and among, will be the subject 
 of the modern part of Satan's history, and of which 
 we are next to give an account. 
 
THE 
 
 MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL, 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I HAVE examined the antiquities of Satan's history 
 in the former part of this work, and brought his affairs 
 down from the creation, as far as to our blessed Chris- 
 tian times; especially to the coming of the Messiah, 
 when one would think the Devil could have nothing 
 to do among us. I have indeed but touched at such 
 things which might have admitted of a farther 
 description of Satan's affairs, and the particulars of 
 which we may all come to a farther knowledge of 
 hereafter ; yet I think I have spoken to the material 
 part of his conduct, as it relates to his empire in this 
 world. What has happened to his more sublimated 
 government, and his angelic capacities, I shall have 
 an occasion to touch at in several solid particulars #s 
 we go along. 
 
 The Messiah was now born, the fullness of time 
 was come, that the Old Serpent was to have his head 
 broken ; that is to say, his empire or dominion over 
 man, which he gained by the fall of our first father 
 and mother in paradise, received a downfall or over- 
 throw. 
 
 It is worth observing, in order to confirm what I 
 have already mentioned of the limitation of Satan's 
 power, that not only his angelic strength seems to 
 have received a farther blow upon the coming of the 
 Son of God into the world, but he seems to have had 
 
THE MODEKN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 163 
 
 a blow upon his intellects; his serpentine craft and 
 devil-like subtilty seems to have been circumscribed, 
 and cut short; and instead of his being so cunning a 
 fellow as before, when, as I said, it is evident he out- 
 witted all mankind, not only Eve, Cain, Noah, Lot, 
 and all the patriarchs, but even nations of men, and 
 that in their public capacity ; and thereby led them 
 into absurd and ridiculous things, such as the building 
 of Babel, and deifying and worshipping their kings, 
 when dead and rotten ; idolizing beasts, stocks, stones, 
 anything, and even nothing ; and, in a word, when he 
 managed mankind just as he pleased. 
 
 Now, and from this time forward, he appeared a 
 weak, foolish, ignorant Devil, compared to what he 
 was before. He was upon almost every occasion 
 resisted, disappointed, balked and defeated ; especially 
 in all his attempts to thwart or cross the mission and 
 ministry of the Messiah, while he was upon earth, and 
 sometimes upon other and very mean occasions too. 
 
 And first; how foolish a project was it, and how 
 below Satan's celebrated artifice in like cases, to put 
 Herod upon sending to kill the poor innocent children 
 in Bethlehem, in hopes to destroy the infant i for I 
 take it for granted, it was the Devil put into Herod's 
 thoughts that execution, how simple and foolish 
 soever; now we must allow him to be very ignorant 
 of the nativity himself, or else he might easily have 
 guided his friend Herod to the place where the infant 
 was. 
 
 This shows that either the Devil is in general igno- 
 rant, as we ace, of what is to come in the world, before 
 it is really come to pass ; and, consequently, can fortell 
 nothing, no not so much as our famous old Merlin or 
 Mother Shipton did ; or else that great event was hid 
 from him by an immediate power superior to his, 
 which I cannot think neither, considering how much 
 he was concerned in it, and how certainly he knew 
 that it was once to come to pass. 
 
 But be that as it will, it is certain the Devil knew 
 
 nothing where Christ was born, or when ; nor was he 
 
 able to direct Herod to find him out ; and therefore 
 
 put him upon that foolish, as well as cruel order, to 
 
 3* 
 
154 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 kill all the children, that he might be sure to destroy 
 the Messiah among the rest. 
 
 The next simple step that the Devil took, and 
 indeed the most foolish one that he could ever be 
 charged with, unworthy the very dignity of a devil, and 
 below the understanding that he always was allowed 
 to act with, was that of coming to tempt the Messiah 
 in the wilderness; it is certain, and he owned it him- 
 self afterwards, upon many occasions, that the Devil 
 knew our Saviour to be the Son of God ; and it is as 
 certain that he knew, that as such he could have no 
 power or advantage over him ; how foolish then was 
 it in him to attack him in that manner, "if thou beest 
 the Son of God?" why he knew him to be the Son of 
 God well enough ; he said so afterwards, " I know 
 thee who thou art, the holy one of God ;" how then 
 could he be so weak a devil as to say, if thou art, then 
 do so and so ? 
 
 The case is plain, the Devil, though he knew him 
 to be the Son of God, did not fully know the mystery 
 of the incarnation ; nor did he know how far the 
 inanition of Christ extended, and whether, as man, he 
 was not subject to fall as Adam was, though his 
 reserved godhead might be still immaculate and pure; 
 and upon this foot, as he would leave no method 
 untried, he attempts him three times, one immediately 
 after another ; but then, finding himself disappointed, 
 he fled. 
 
 This evidently proves, that the Devil was ignorant 
 of the great mystery of godliness, as the text calls it, 
 God manifest in the flesh ; and therefore made that 
 foolish attempt upon Christ, thinking to have con- 
 quered his human nature, as capable of sin, which it 
 was not : and at this repulse hell groaned ; the whole 
 army of regimented devils received a wound, and felt 
 the shock of it; it was a second overthrow to them; 
 they had a long chain of success ; carried a devilish 
 conquest over the greatest part of the creation of God : 
 but now they were cut short, the seed of the woman 
 was now come to break the serpent's head ; that is, to 
 cut short his power, to contract the limits of his king- 
 dom, and, in a word, to dethrone him in the world. 
 No doubt the Devil received a shock ; for you find 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 165 
 
 him, always afterward, crying out in a horrible man- 
 ner, whenever Christ met with him, or else very 
 humble and submissive ; as when he begged leave to 
 go into the herd of swine, a thing he has often done 
 since. 
 
 Defeated here, the first stratagem I find him con- 
 cerned in after it, was his entering into Judas, and 
 putting him upon betraying Christ to the chief priest; 
 but here again he was entirely mistaken ; for he did 
 not see, as much a devil as he was, what the event 
 would be. But, when he came to know, that if 
 Christ was put to death, he would become a propitia- 
 tory, and be the great sacrifice of mankind, so to 
 rescue the fallen race from that death they had 
 incurred the penalty of, by the fall ; that this was the 
 fulfilling of all scripture prophecy; and that thus it 
 was that Christ was to be the end of the law ; I say, 
 as soon as he perceived this, he strove all he could to 
 prevent it, and disturbed Pilate's wife in her sleep, in 
 order to set her upon her husband to hinder his deliv- 
 ering him up to the Jews ; for then, and not till then, 
 he knew how Christ was to vanquish hell by the 
 power of his cross. 
 
 Thus the Devil was disappointed and exposed in 
 every step he took ; and as he now plainly saw his 
 kingdom declining, and even the temporal kingdom of 
 Christ rising up upon the ruins of his (Satan's) power, 
 he seemed to retreat into his own region the air, and 
 to consult there with his fellow devils, what measures 
 he should take next to preserve his dominion among 
 men. Here it was that he resolved upon that truly 
 hellish thing called persecution ; by which, though he 
 proved a foolish devil in that too, he flattered himself 
 he should be able to destroy God's church, and root 
 out its professors from the earth, even almost as soon 
 as it was established ; whereas, on the contrary, 
 Heaven counteracted him there too ; and though he 
 armed the whole Roman empire against the Christians, 
 that is to say, the whole world, and they were fallen 
 upon everywhere, with all the fury and rage of some 
 of the most flaming tyrants that the world ever saw. 
 of whom Nero was the first ; yet, in spite of hell, God 
 made all the blood, which the Devil caused to be spilt, 
 
156 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 to be semen ecclesia ;; and the Devil had the mortifica- 
 tion to see, that the number of Christians increased, 
 even under the very means he made use of to root 
 them out, and destroy them. This was the case 
 through the reign of all the Roman emperors, for the 
 first three hundred years after Christ. 
 
 Having thus tried all the methods that best suited 
 his inclination, I mean those of blood and death, com- 
 plicated with tortures, and all kinds of cruelty, and 
 that for so long a space of time as above ; "the Devil 
 all on a sudden, as if glutted with blood, and satiated 
 with destruction, sits still, and becomes a peaceable 
 spectator for a good while ; as if he either found him- 
 self unable, or had no disposition, to hinder the pro- 
 gress of Christianity, in the first ages of its settlement 
 in the world. In this interval the Christian church 
 was established under Constantine, religion flourished 
 in peace, and under the most perfect tranquillity. The 
 Devil seemed to be at a loss what he should do next, 
 and things began to look as if Satan's kingdom was at 
 an end. But he soon let them see, that he was the 
 same indefatigable Devil that ever he was ; and the 
 prosperity of the church gave him a large field of ac- 
 tion ; for knowing the disposition of mankind to quarrel 
 and dispute, the universal passion rooted in nature, 
 especially among the Churchmen, for precedency and 
 dominion, he fell to work with them immediately ; so 
 that, turning the tables, and reassuming the subtlety 
 and craft, which, I say, he seemed to have lost in the 
 former four hundred years, he gained more ground in 
 the next ages of the church, and went farther towards 
 restoring his power and empire in the world, and to- 
 wards overthrowing that very church which was so 
 lately established, than all he had done by fire and 
 blood before. 
 
 His policy now seemed to be edged with resentment, 
 for the mistakes he had made; as if the Devil, looking 
 back with anger at himself, to see what a fool he had 
 been, to expect to crush religion by persecution, re- 
 joiced for having discovered, that liberty and dominion 
 was the only way to ruin the church, not fire and 
 faggot; and that he had nothing to do, but to give the 
 zealous people their utmost liberty in religion, only 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 157 
 
 sowing error and variety of opinion among them, and 
 they would bring fire and faggot in fast enough among 
 themselves. 
 
 It must be confessed these were devilish politics; 
 and so sure was the aim. and so certain was the Devil 
 to hit his mark by them, that we find he not only did 
 not fail then, but the same hellish methods have pre- 
 vailed still, and will do so to the end of the world. 
 Nor had the Devil ever a better game to play than this, 
 for the ruin of religion, as we shall have room to show 
 in many examples, besides that of the dissenters in 
 England, who are evidently weakened by the late 
 toleration. Whether the Devil had any hand in bait- 
 ing his hook with an a of parliament or no, history 
 is silent; but it is too evident he has catched the fish 
 by it,: and if the honest church of England does not 
 in pity, and Christian charity to the dissenters, strait- 
 en her hand a little, I cannot but fear the Devil will 
 gain his point, and the dissenter will be undone by it. 
 
 Upon this new foot of politics the Devil began with 
 the emperors themselves. Arius, the father of the her- 
 etics of that age, having broached his opinions ; and 
 Athanasius, the orthodox bishop of the east, opposing 
 him ; the Devil no sooner saw the door open to strife 
 and imposition, but he thrust himself in, and raising 
 the quarrel up to a suited degree of rage and spleen, 
 he involved the good emperor himself in it first ; and 
 Athanasius was banished and recalled, and banished 
 and recalled again, several times, as error ran high, 
 and as the Devil either got or lost ground. After Con- 
 stantine, the next emperor was a child of his own, 
 (Arian ;) and then the court came all into the quarrel, 
 as courts often do ; and then the Arians and the ortho- 
 dox persecuted one another as furiously as the Pagans 
 persecuted them all before. To such an height the 
 Devil brought his conquest, in the very infancy of the 
 question; and so much did he prevail over the true 
 Christianity of the primitive church, even before they 
 had enjoyed the liberty of the pure worship twenty 
 years. 
 
 Flushed with this success, the Devil made one push 
 for the restoring Paganism, and bringing on the old 
 worship of the heathen idols and temples ; but, like our 
 H 
 
158 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 King James II. he drove too hard, and Julian had so 
 provoked the whole Roman empire, which was gene- 
 rally, at that time, become Christian, that had the 
 apostate lived, he would not have been able to have 
 held the throne; and, as he was cut off in his begin- 
 ning, Paganism expired with him, and the Devil him- 
 self might have cried out. as Julian did, and with much 
 more propriety, Vicisti, Galilcee. 
 
 Jovian, the next emperor, being a glorious Christian, 
 and a very good and great man, the Devil abdicated 
 for a while, and left the Christian armies to reestablish 
 the orthodox faith ; nor could he bring the Christians 
 to a breach again among themselves agreat while 
 after. 
 
 However, time, and a diligent Devil, did the work 
 at last ; and when the emperors' concerning themsejves 
 one way or other did not appear sufficient to answer 
 his end, he changed hands again, and went to work 
 with the clergy. To set the doctors effectually together 
 by the ears, he threw in the new notion of primacy 
 among them, for a bone of contention ; the bait took, 
 the priests swallowed it eagerly down ; and the Devil, 
 a cunninger fisherman than ever St. Peter was, struck 
 them (as the anglers call it) with a quick hand, and 
 hung them fast upon the hook. 
 
 Having them thus in his clutches, and they being 
 now, as we may say, his own, they took their meas- 
 ures afterwards from him, and most obediently followed 
 his directions; nay, I will not say but he may have 
 had pretty much the management of the whole society 
 ever since, of what profession or party soever they 
 may have been, with exception only to the reverend 
 and right reverend among ourselves. 
 
 The sacred, as above, being thus hooked in, and the 
 Devil being at the head of their affairs, matters went 
 on most gloriously his own way ; first, the bishops fell 
 to bandying and party-making for the superiority, as 
 heartily as ever temporal tyrants did for dominion; 
 and took as black and devilish methods to carry it on, 
 as the worst of those tyrants ever had done before 
 them. 
 
 At last Satan declared for the Roman pontiff, and 
 that upon excellent conditions, in the reign of the 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 159 
 
 Emperor Mauritius; for Boniface, who had long con- 
 tended for the title of supreme, fell into a treaty with 
 Phocas, captain of the emperor's guards; whether the 
 hargain was from hell or not, let any one judge; the 
 conditions absolutely entitle the Devil to the honor of 
 making the contract; namely, that Phocas first mur- 
 dering his master (the emperor,) and his sons, Boniface 
 should countenance the treason, and declare him em- 
 peror; and, in return, Phocas should, acknowledge the 
 primacy of the church of Rome, and declare Boniface 
 universal bishop. A blessed compact ! which at once 
 set the Devil at the head of affairs in the Christian 
 world, as well spiritual as temporal, ecclesiastic as 
 civil. Since the conquest over Eve in Paradise, by 
 which death and the Devil, hand in hand, established 
 their first empire upon earth, the Devil never gained a 
 more important point than he gained at this time. 
 
 He had indeed prospered in his affairs tolerably well 
 for some time before this, and his interest among the 
 clergy had got ground for some ages ; but that was 
 indeed a secret management, was carried on privately, 
 and with difficulty; as in sowing discord and faction 
 among the people, perplexing the councils of their 
 princes, and secretly wheedling in with the dignified 
 clergy. 
 
 Also he had raised abundance of little church-rebel- 
 lions, by setting up heretics of several kinds, and rais- 
 ing them favorers among the clergy, such as Ebion, 
 Cerinthus, Pelagius, and others. 
 
 He had drawn in the bishops of Rome to set up the 
 ridiculous pageantry of the key ; and while he, the 
 Devil, set open the gates of hell to them all, put them 
 upon locking up the gates of heaven, and giving the 
 bishop the key ; a cheat which r as gross as it was, the 
 Devil so gilded over, or so blinded the age to receive it, 
 that, like Gideon's ephod, all the Catholic world went 
 a whoring after the idol ; and the bishop of Rome sent 
 more fools to the Devil by it, than ever he pretended 
 to let into heaven, though he opened the door as wide 
 as his key was able to do. 
 
 The story of this key being given to the bishop of 
 Rome by St. Peter, (who. by the way, never had it 
 himself,) and of its being lost by somebody or other 
 
160 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 (the Devil it seems did not tell them who,) and its 
 being found again by a "Lombard soldier, in the army 
 of King Antharis; who, attempting to cut it with his 
 knife, was miraculously forced to direct the wound to 
 himself, and cut his own throat; that fcng Antharis 
 and his nobles, happened to see the fellow do it, and 
 were converted to Christianity by it ; and that the king 
 sent the key, with another made like it, to Pope Pela- 
 gius, then bishop.of Rome, who thereupon assumed the 
 power of opening and shutting heaven's gates ; and he 
 afterwards setting a price, or toll, upon the entrance, 
 as we do here at passing a turnpike. These fine 
 things, I say, were successfully managed for some 
 years before this I am now speaking of; and the Devil 
 got a great deal of ground by it too; but now he tri- 
 umphed openly, and, having set up a murderer upon 
 the temporal throne, and a church emperor upon the 
 ecclesiastic throne, and both of his own choosing, the 
 Devil may be said to begin his new kingdom from this 
 epocha, and call it the restoration. 
 
 Since this time indeed, the Devil's affairs went very 
 merrily on, and the clergy brought so many gewgaws 
 into their worship, and such devilish principles were 
 mixed with that which we call the Christian faith ; 
 that in a word, from this time, the bishop of Rome 
 commenced whore of Babylon, in all the most express 
 terms that could be imagined. Tyranny of the worst 
 sort crept into the pontificate, errors of all sorts into the 
 profession ; and they proceeded from one thing to an- 
 other, till the very pope, for so the bishop of Rome 
 was now called, by way of distinction ; I say, the 
 popes themselves, their spiritual guides, professed 
 openly to confederate with the Devil, and to carry on 
 a personal and private correspondence with him, at the 
 same time taking upon them the title of Christ's 
 vicar, and the infallible guide of the consciences of 
 Christians. 
 
 This we have sundry instances of in some merry 
 popes; who, if fame lies not, were sorcerers, magicians, 
 had familiar spirits, and immediate conversation with 
 the Devil, as well visibly as invisibly, and by this 
 means became what we call devils incarnate. Upon 
 this account it is, that I have left the conversation that 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 161 
 
 passes between devils and men to this place, as well 
 because I believe it differs much now in his modem 
 state, from what it was in his ancient state; and 
 therefore, that which most concerns us belongs rather 
 to this part of his history ; as also, because, as I am 
 now writing to the present age, I choose to bring the 
 most significant parts of his history, especially as they 
 relate to ourselves, into that part of time that we are 
 most concerned in. 
 
 The Devil had once, as I observed before, the uni- 
 versal monarchy or government of mankind in himself; 
 and I doubt not but, in that flourishing state of his 
 affairs, he governed them like what he is, namely, an 
 absolute tyrant; during this theocracy of his, for Satan 
 is called the God of this world, he did not familiarize 
 himself to mankind so much, as he finds occasion to 
 do now; there was not then so much need of it; he 
 governed them with an absolute sway; he had his 
 oracles, where he gave audience to his votaries like a 
 deity ; and he had his sub-gods, who under his several 
 dispositions, received the homage of mankind in their 
 names ; such were all the rabble of the heathen deities, 
 from Jupiter the supreme, to the Lares, or household 
 gods, of every family ; these, I say, like residents, re- 
 ceived the prostrations ; but the homage was all Sa- 
 tan's; the Devil had the substance of it all, which was 
 the idolatry. 
 
 During this administration of hell, there was less 
 witchcraft, less true literal magic, than there has been 
 since; there was indeed no need of it, the Devil did 
 not stoop to the mechanism of his more modern ope- 
 rations, but ruled as a deity, and received the vows 
 and the bows of his subjects in more state, and with 
 more solemnity; whereas, since that, he is content to 
 employ more agents, and take more pains himself too; 
 now he runs up and down hackney in the world, more 
 like a drudge than a prince, and much more than he 
 did then. 
 
 Hence all those things we call apparitions and 
 visions of ghosts, familiar spirits, and dealings with 
 the Devil, of which there is so great a variety in the 
 world at this time, were not so much known among 
 the people, in those first ages of the Devil's kingdom ; 
 14=* 
 
162 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 in a word, the Devil seems to be put to his shifts, and 
 to fly to art and stratagem for the carrying on his af- 
 fairs, much more now than he did then. 
 
 One reason for this may be, that he has been more 
 discovered and exposed in these ages, than he was be- 
 fore ; then he could appear in the world in his own 
 proper shapes, and yet not be known ; when the sons 
 of God appeared at the divine summons, Satan came 
 along with them ; but now he has played so many 
 scurvy tricks upon men, and they know him so well, 
 that he is obliged to play quite out of sight, and act in 
 disguise ; mankind will allow nothing of his doing, 
 and hear nothing of his saying, in his own name. 
 And if you propose anything to be done, and it be but 
 said the Devil is to help in the doing it ; or if you 
 say of any man, he deals with the Devil, or the Devil 
 has a hand in it; everybody flies him, and shuns him, 
 as the most frightful thing in the world. 
 
 Nay, if anything strange and improbable be done, 
 or related to be done, we presently say the Devil was 
 at the doing it. Thus the great ditch afNewmarket- 
 heath is called the Devil's ditch ; so the Devil built 
 Crowland Abbey, and the whispering place in Glou- 
 cester cathedral ; nay, the cave at Castleton, only be- 
 cause there is no getting to the farther end of it, is called 
 the Devil's place, and the like. The poor people of 
 Wiltshire, when you ask them how the great stones at 
 Stonehenge were brought thither? they will all tell 
 you the Devil brought them. If any mischief extra- 
 ordinary befalls us, we presently say the Devil was in 
 it, and the Devil would have it so; in a word, the 
 Devil has got an ill name among us, and so he is fain 
 to act more incog, than he used to do, play out of 
 sight himself, and work by the sap, as the engineers 
 call it ; and not openly and avowedly, in his own 
 name and person, as formerly, though perhaps not 
 with less success than he did before ; and this leads 
 me to inquire more narrowly into the manner of the 
 Devil's management of his affairs, since the Christian 
 religion began to spread in the world, which mani- 
 festly differs from his conduct in more ancient times ; 
 in which, if we discover some of the most consum- 
 mate fool's policy, the most profound simple-craft, and 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 103 
 
 the most subtle, shallow management of things that 
 can, by our weak understandings, be conceived, we 
 must only resolve it into this, that, in short, it is the 
 Devil. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of hell, as it is represented to us ; and how the Devil 
 is to be understood, as being personally in hell, when 
 at the same time we find him at liberty ranging over 
 the world. 
 
 IT is true, as that learned and pleasant author, the 
 inimitable Dr. Brown, says, the Devil is his own hell; 
 one of the most constituting parts of his infelicity is, 
 that he cannot act upon mankind by his own inherent 
 power, as well as rage ; that he cannot unhinge this 
 creation; which, as I have observed in its place, he 
 had the utmost aversion to from its beginning, as it 
 was a stated design in the Creator, to supply his place 
 in heaven with a new species of beings called man, 
 and fill the vacancies occasioned by his degeneracy 
 and rebellion. 
 
 This rilled him with rage inexpressible, and horrible 
 resolutions of revenge ; and the impossibility of exe- 
 cuting those resolutions torments him with despair; 
 this, added to what he was before, makes him a com- 
 plete devil, with an hell in his own breast, and a fire 
 unquenchable burning about his heart. 
 
 I might enlarge here, and very much to the purpose, 
 in describing spherically and mathematically that ex- 
 quisite quality called a devilish spirit; in which it 
 would naturally occur, to give you a whole chapter 
 upon the glorious articles of malice and envy, and es- 
 pecially upon that luscious, delightful triumphant pas- 
 sion called revenge; how natural to man, nay even to 
 both sexes ; how pleasant in the very contemplation, 
 though there be not just at that time a power of ex- 
 ecution ; how palatable it is in itself; and how well it 
 relishes when dished up with proper sauces ; such as 
 plots, contrivance, scheme, and confederacy, all lead- 
 
164 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 ing on to execution. How it possesses a human soul 
 in all the most sensible parts; how it empowers man- 
 kind to sin in imagination, as effectually to all future 
 intents and purposes, (death,) as if he had sinned ac- 
 tually. How safe a practice it is too, as to punishment 
 in this life ; namely, that it empowers us to cut throats 
 clear of the gallows, to slander virtue, reproach inno- 
 cence, wound honor, and stab reputation ; and, in a 
 word, to do all the wicked things in the world, out of 
 the reach of the law. 
 
 It would also require some few words to describe 
 the secret operations of those nice qualities, when they 
 reach the human soul ; how effectually they form an 
 hell within us, and how imperceptibly they assimilate 
 and transform us into devils, mere human devils, as 
 really devils as Satan himself, or any of his angels ; 
 and that therefore it is not so much out of the way, as 
 some imagine, to say, such a man is an incarnate devil ; 
 for as crime made Satan a devil, who was before a 
 bright immortal seraph, or angel of light, how much 
 more easily may the same crime make the same devil, 
 though every way meaner, and more contemptible, of 
 a man or a woman either? But this is too grave a 
 subject for me at this time. 
 
 The Devil being thus, I say, fired with rage and 
 envy, in consequence of his jealousy upon the creation 
 of man, his torment is increased to the highest by the 
 limitation of his power, and being forbid to act against 
 mankind by force of arms; this is, I say, part of his 
 hell, which, as above, is within him, and which he 
 carries with him wherever he goes ; nor is it so diffi- 
 cult to conceive of hell, or of the Devil either, under 
 this just description, as it is by all the usual notions 
 that we are taught to entertain of them, by (the old 
 women) our instructors ; for every man may, by taking 
 but a common view of himself, and making a just 
 scrutiny into his own passions, on some of their par- 
 ticular excursions, see an hell within himself, and him- 
 self a mere devil as long as the inflammation lasts ; 
 and that as really, and to all intents and purposes, as 
 if he had the angel (Satan) before his face, in his lo- 
 cality and personality ; that is to say, all devil and 
 monster in his person; and an immaterial, but in- 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 165 
 
 tense fire flaming about and from within him, at all 
 the pores of bis body. 
 
 The notions we receive of the Devil, as a person 
 being in hell as a place, are infinitely absurd and ridi- 
 culous. The first we are certain is not true in fact, 
 because he has a certain liberty, (however limited, 
 that is not to the purpose,) is daily visible, and to be 
 traced in his several attacks upon mankind, and has 
 been so ever since his first appearance in Paradise ; as 
 to his corporal visibility, that is riot the present ques- 
 tion neither; it is enough that we can hunt him by the 
 foot, that we can follow him as hounds do a fox upon 
 an hot scent. We can see him as plainly by the effect, 
 by the mischief he does, and more by the mischief he 
 puts us upon doing, I say, as plainly, as if we saw 
 him by the eye. 
 
 It is not to be doubted but the Devil can see us when 
 and where we cannot see him. And as he has a per- 
 sonality, though it be spirituous, he and his angels too 
 may be reasonably supposed to inhabit the world of 
 spirits, and to have free access from thence to the 
 regions of life, arid to pass and repass in the air, as 
 really, though not perceptible to us, as the spirits of 
 men do, after their release from the body, pass to a 
 place (wherever that is) which is appointed for them. 
 
 If the Devil was confined to a place (hell) as a 
 prison, he could then have no business here; and if we 
 pretend to describe hell, as not a prison, but that the 
 devil has liberty to be there, or not to be there, as he 
 pleased, then he would certainly never be there, or 
 hell is not such a place as we are taught to understand 
 it to be. 
 
 Indeed, according to some, hell should be a place of 
 fire and torment to the souls that are cast into it, but 
 not to the devils themselves; whom we make little 
 more or less than keepers and turnkeys to hell, as a 
 gaol ; that they are sent about to bring souls thither, 
 lock them in when they come, and then away upon 
 the scent to fetch more. That one sort of devils are 
 made to live in the world among men, and to be busy 
 continually debauching and deluding mankind, bring- 
 ing them as it were to the gates of hell ; and then, 
 another sort are porters and carriers to fetch them in. 
 
166 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 This is, in short, little more or less than the old story 
 of Pluto, of Cerberus, and of Charon ; only that our 
 tale is not half so well told, nor the parts of the fable 
 so well laid together. 
 
 In all these notions of hell and the Devil, the tor- 
 ments of the first, and the agency of the last torment- 
 ing, we meet with not one word of the main, and per- 
 haps only accent of horror, which belongs to us to 
 judge of about hell, I mean the absence of heaven; 
 expulsion and exclusion from the presence and face of 
 the chief Ultimate, the only eternal and sufficient Good; 
 and this loss sustained by a sordid neglect of our con- 
 cern in that excellent part, in exchange for the most 
 contemptible and justly condemned trifles, and all this 
 eternal and irrecoverable. These people tell us nothing 
 of the eternal reproaches of conscience, the horror of 
 desperation, and the anguish of a mind hopeless of 
 ever seeing the glory, which alone constitutes heaven, 
 and which makes all other places dreadful, and even 
 darkness itself. 
 
 And this brings me directly to the point in hand ; 
 namely, the state of that hell we ought to have in 
 view, when we speak of the devil as in hell. This is 
 the very hell, which is the torment of the devil; in 
 short, the Devil is in hell, and hell is in the Devil ; 
 he is filled with this unquenchable fire, he is expelled 
 the place of glory, banished from the regions of light; 
 absence from the life of all beatitude is his curse; 
 despair is the reigning passion in his mind ; and all the 
 little constituent parts of his torment, such as rage, 
 envy, malice, and jealousy, are consolidated in this, to 
 make his misery complete ; namely, the duration of it 
 all, the eternity of his condition ; that he is without 
 hope, without redemption, without recovery. 
 
 If anything can inflame this hell, and make it hotter, 
 it is this only, and this does add an inexpressible 
 horror to the Devil himself; namely, the seeing man 
 (the only creature he hates) placed in a state of re- 
 covery, a glorious establishment of redemption formed 
 for him in heaven, and the scheme of it perfected on 
 earth; by which this man, though even the Devil by 
 his art may have deluded him, and drawn him into 
 crime, is yet in a state of recovery, which the Devil 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 167 
 
 is not ; and that it is not in his (Satan's) power to pre- 
 vent it. Now take the Devil as he is in his own nature 
 angelic,. a bright immortal seraph, heaven-born, and 
 having tasted the eternal beatitude, which these are 
 appointed to enjoy; the loss of that state to himself, 
 the possession of it granted to his rival, though wicked 
 like and as himself; I say, take the Devil as he is, 
 having a quick sense of his own perdition, and a sting- 
 ing sight of his rival's felicity, it is hell enough, and 
 more than enough, even for an angel to support; no- 
 thing we can conceive, can be worse. 
 
 As to any other fire than this, such, and so immate- 
 rially intense, as to torment a spirit, which is itself 
 fire also; I will not say it cannot be, because to Infi- 
 nite everything is possible ; but I must say, I cannot 
 conceive rightly of it. 
 
 I will not enter here into the wisdom or reasonable- . 
 ness of representing the torments of hell to be fire, and 
 that fire to be a commixture of flame and sulphur; it 
 has pleased God to let the horror of those eternal ago- 
 nies about a lost heaven be laid before us by those 
 similitudes or allegories, which are most moving to our 
 senses, and to our understandings ; nor will I dispute 
 the possibility; much less will I doubt but that there 
 is to be a consummation of misery to all the objects of 
 misery, when, the Devil's kingdom in this world end- 
 ing with the world itself, that liberty he has now may 
 be farther abridged ; when he may be returned to the 
 same state he was in between the time of his fall and 
 the creation of the world ; with perhaps some additional 
 vengeance on him, such as at present we cannot de- 
 scribe, for all that treason, and those high crimes and 
 misdemeanors, which he has been guilty of here, in his 
 conversation with mankind. 
 
 \ As his infelicity will be then consummated and con- 
 pleted, so the felicity of that part of mankind, who are 
 condemned with him, may receive a considerable addi- 
 tion from those words in their sentence, to be tormented 
 with the Devil, and his angels ; for as the absence of 
 the supreme Good is a complete hell, so the hated 
 company of the deceiver, who was the great cause of 
 his ruin, must be /a subject of additional horror, and he 
 will be always saying, as a Scotch gentleman, who 
 
168 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 died of his excesses, said to the famous Dr. P , 
 
 who came to see him on his death-bed, but had been 
 too much his companion in his life, " It is no time to 
 trifle with truth." 
 
 I would not treat the very subject itself with any 
 indecency; nor do I think my opinion of that hell', 
 which I say consists in the absence of him, in whom 
 is heaven, one jot less solemn than theirs who believe 
 it all fire and brimstone; but I must own, that, to me, 
 nothing can be more ridiculous, than the notions that 
 we entertain, and fill our heads with, about hell, and 
 about the Devil's being there tormenting of souls, 
 broiling them upon gridirons, hanging them up upon 
 hooks, carrying them upon their backs, and the like ; 
 with the several pictures of hell, represented by a great 
 mouth with horrible teeth, gaping like a cave on the 
 side of a mountain ; suppose that appropriated to Satan 
 in the Peak, which indeed is not much unlike it, with 
 a stream of fire coming out of it, as there is of water, 
 and smaller devils going and coming continually in 
 and out. to fetch and carry souls the Lord knows 
 whither, and for the Lord knows what. 
 
 These things, however intended for terror, are indeed 
 so ridiculous, that the Devil himself, to be sure, mocks 
 at them; and a man of sense can hardly refrain doing 
 the like; only I avoid it, because I would not give 
 offence to weaker heads. 
 
 However, I must not compliment the brains of other 
 men at the expence of my own, or talk nonsense be- 
 cause they can understand no other. I think all these 
 notions and representations of hell, and of the Devil, 
 to be as profane as they are ridiculous ; and I ought no 
 more to talk profanely than merrily of them. 
 
 Let us learn to talk of these things then, as we 
 should do ; and as we really cannot describe them to* 
 our reason and understanding, why should we describe 
 them to our senses? We had, I think, much better 
 not describe them at all, that, is to say, not attempt it. 
 The blessed Apostle St. Paul was, as he said himself, 
 carried up, or caught up, into the third heaven ; yet, 
 when he came down again, he could neither tell what 
 he heard, or describe what he saw ; all he could say 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OP THE DEVIL. 169 
 
 of it was, that what he heard was unutterable, and 
 what he saw was inconceivable. 
 
 It is the same thing as to the state of the Devil, in 
 those regions which he now possesses, and where he 
 now more particularly inhabits. My present business 
 then is, not to enter into those grave things so as to 
 make them ridiculous, as I think most people do that 
 talk of them; but as the Devil, let his residence be 
 where it will, has evidently free leave to come and go, 
 not into this world only, (I mean the region of our 
 atmosphere,) but, for aught we know, to all the other 
 inhabited worlds which God has made, wherever they 
 are, and by whatsoever names they are, or may be, 
 known or distinguished ; for if he is not confined in one 
 place, we have no reason to believe he is excluded from 
 any place, heaven only excepted, from whence he was 
 expelled for his treason and rebellion. 
 
 His liberty then being thus ascertained, three things 
 seem to be material for us to give an account of, in 
 order to form this part of his history. 
 
 1. What his business is on this globe of earth which 
 we vulgarly call the world; how he acts among us; 
 what affairs mankind and he have together ; and how 
 far his conduct here relates to us, and ours is, or may 
 be. influenced by him. 
 
 2. Where his principal residence is; and whether 
 he has not a particular empire of his own, to which he 
 retreats upon proper occasions ; where he entertains 
 his friends when they come under his particular ad- 
 ministration ; and where, when he gets any victory 
 over his enemies, he carries his prisoners of war. 
 
 3. What may probably be the great business this 
 black emperor has at present upon his hands, either in 
 this world, or out of it; and by what agents he works. 
 
 As these things may, perhaps, run promiscuously 
 through the course of this whole work, and frequently 
 be touched at under other branches of the Devil's his- 
 tory ; so I do not propose them as heads of chapters, 
 or particular sections, for the order of discourse to be 
 handled apart; for (by the way) as Satan's actings 
 have not been the most regular things in the world, so, 
 in our discourse about him, it must not be expected 
 that we can always tie ourselves down to order and 
 15 
 
170 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 regularity either as to time, or place, or persons ; for 
 Satan being a loose, ungoverned fellow, we must be 
 content to trace him where we can find him. 
 
 It is true, in the foregoing chapter, I showed you the 
 Devil entered into the herd ecclesiastic, and gave you 
 some account of the first successful step he took with 
 mankind, since the Christian epocha ; how having 
 secretly managed both temporal and spiritual power 
 apart, and by themselves, he now united them in point 
 of management, and brought the church usurpation 
 and the army's usurpation together; the pope to bless 
 the general in deposing and murdering his master the 
 emperor ; and the general to recognize the pope in de- 
 throning his master Christ Jesus. 
 
 From this time forward, you are to allow the Devil 
 a mystical empire in this world ; not an action of mo- 
 ment done without him, not a treason but he has an 
 "hand in it, not a tyrant but he prompts him, not a gov- 
 ernment but he has an agent in it; not a fool but he 
 tickles him, not a knave but he guides him; he has a 
 finger in every fraud, a key to every cabinet, from the 
 Divan at Constantinople, to the Mississippi in France, 
 
 and to the South Sea ; from the first attack 
 
 upon the Christian world, in the person of the Romish 
 Antichrist, down to the bull Unigenitus ; and from the 
 mixture of St. Peter and Confucius in China, to the 
 holy office in Spain ; and down to the Emlins and 
 Dod wells of the current age. 
 
 How he has managed, and does manage, and how, 
 in all probability, he will manage till his kingdom 
 shall come to a period, and how, at last, he will prob- 
 ably be managed himself, inquire within the Sacred 
 page, and you shall know farther. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 171 
 
 i' 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Of the manner of Satan's acting- and carrying on his 
 affairs in this world ; and particularly of his ordi- 
 nary ivorkings in the dark, by possession and agita- 
 tion. 
 
 THE Devil being thus reduced to act upon mankind 
 by stratagem only, it remains to inquire how he per- 
 forms, and which way he directs his attacks. The 
 faculties of man are a kind of a garrison in a strong 
 castle, which, as they defend it on the one hand under 
 the command of the reasoning power of man's soul, so 
 they are prescribed on the other hand, and can't sally 
 out without leave ; for the governor of a fort does not 
 permit his soldiers to hold any correspondence with 
 the enemy, without special order and direction. Now 
 the great inquiry before us is, how comes the Devil to 
 a parley with us? How does he converse with our 
 senses, and with the understanding? How does he 
 reach us? Which way does he come at the affections, 
 and which way does he move the passions ? It is a 
 little difficult to discover this treasonable correspon- 
 dence; and that difficulty is, indeed, the Devil's ad- 
 vantage, and, for aught I see, the chief advantage he 
 has over mankind. 
 
 It is also a great inquiry here, whether the Devil 
 knows our thoughts or no ? If I may give my opinion, 
 I am with the negative ; I deny that he knows any- 
 thing of our thoughts, except of those thoughts which 
 he puts us upon thinking; for I will not doubt, but he 
 has the art to inject thoughts, and to revive dormant 
 thoughts in us. It is not so wild a scheme as some 
 take it to be, that Mr. Milton lays down, to represent 
 the Devil injecting corrupt desires, and wandering 
 thoughts, into the head of Eve, by dreams; and that 
 he brought her to dream whatever he put into her 
 thoughts, by whispering to her vocally when she was 
 asleep ; and, to this end, he imagines the Devil laying 
 himself close to her ear, in the shape of a toad, when 
 
172 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 she was fast asleep ; I say, this is not so wild a scheme, 
 seeing even now, if you can whisper anything close to 
 the ear of a person in a deep sleep, so as to speak dis- 
 tinctly to the person, and yet not awaken him, as has 
 been frequently tried, the person sleeping shall dream 
 distinctly of what you say to him ; nay, shall drearn 
 the very words you say. 
 
 We have then no more to ask, but how the Devil 
 can convey himself to the ear of a sleeping person ; and 
 it is granted then, that he may have power to make us 
 dream what he pleases. But this is not all; for if he 
 can so forcibly, by his invisible application, cause us 
 to dream what he pleases, why can he not, with the 
 same facility, prompt our thoughts, whether sleeping 
 or waking'? To dream, is nothing else but to think 
 sleeping ; and we have abundance of deep-headed gen- 
 tlemen among us, who give us ample testimony, that 
 they dream waking. 
 
 But if the Devil can prompt us to dream, that is to 
 say, to think ; yet, if he does not know our thoughts, 
 how then can he tell whether the whisper had its 
 effect ? The answer is plain ; the Devil, like the angler, 
 baits the hook; if the fish bite, he lies ready to take 
 the advantage; he whispeas to the imagination, and 
 then waits to see how it works ; as Naomi said to 
 Ruth, chap. hi. ver. 18. "Sit still, my daughter, until 
 thou know how the matter will fall; for the man will 
 not be at rest until he have finished the thing." Thus, 
 when the Devil had whispered to Eve in her sleep, 
 according to Milton, and suggested mischief to her 
 imagination, he only sat still to see how the matter 
 would work; for he knew, if it took with her, he 
 should hear more of it; and then, by finding her alone 
 the next day, without her ordinary guard, her husband, 
 he presently concluded she had swallowed the bait ; 
 and so attacked her afresh. 
 
 A small deal of craft, and less, by far, than we have 
 reason to believe the Devil is master of, will serve to 
 discover, whether such and such thoughts as he knows 
 he has suggested, have taken place or no ; the action 
 of the person presently discovers it, at least to him that 
 lies always upon the watch, and has every word ; 
 every gesture, every step, we take subsequent to his 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 173 
 
 operation, open to him. It may therefore, for aught 
 we know, be a great mistake, and what most of us are 
 guilty of, to tell our dreams to one another in the morn- 
 ing, after we have been disturbed with them in the 
 night; for if the Devil converses with us so insensibly, 
 as some are of opinion he does, that is to say, if he can 
 hear as far as we can see, we may be telling our story 
 to him indeed, when we think we are only talking to 
 one another. 
 
 This brings me most naturally to the important in- 
 quiry, whether the Devil can walk about the world 
 invisibly or no ? The truth is, this is no question to 
 me; for as I have taken away his visibility already, 
 and have denied him all prescience of futurity too, and 
 have proved he cannot know our thoughts, nor put any 
 force upon persons or actions, if we should take away 
 his invisibility too, we should undevil him quite, to all 
 intents and purposes, as to any mischief he could do ; 
 nay, it would banish him the world, and he might 
 even go and seek his fortune somewhere else ; for if he 
 could neither be visible or invisible, neither act in pub- 
 lic or in private; he could neither have business or 
 being in this sphere, nor could we be any way con- 
 cerned with him. 
 
 The Devil therefore most certainly has a power and 
 liberty of moving about in this world, after some man- 
 ner or another ; this is verified as well by way of alle- 
 gory, as by way of history, in the scripture itself; and 
 as the first strongly suggests and supposes it to be so, 
 the last positively asserts it ; and not to crowd this work 
 with quotations from a book which we have not much 
 to do with in the Devil's story, at least not much 
 to his satisfaction, I only hint his personal appearance 
 to our Saviour in the wilderness, where it is said, " the 
 Devil taketh him up to an exceeding high mountain ; " 
 and in another place, "the Devil departed from him." 
 What shape or figure he appeared in, we do not find 
 mentioned ; but I cannot doubt his appearing to him 
 there, any more than I can his talking to our Saviour 
 in the mouths, and with the voices, of the several 
 persons who were under the terrible affliction of an 
 actual possession. 
 
 These things leave us no room to doubt of what is 
 15* 
 
174 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 advanced above; namely, that he (the Devil) has a 
 certain residence, or liberty of residing in, and moving 
 about upon, the surface of this earth, as well as in the 
 compass of the atmosphere, vulgarly called the air, in 
 some manner or other : that is the general. 
 
 It remains to inquire into the manner; which I re- 
 solve into two kinds : 
 
 1. Ordinary, which I suppose to be his invisible 
 motions as a spirit ; under which consideration I sup- 
 pose him to have an unconfined, unlimited, unre- 
 strained liberty, as to the manner of acting; and this 
 either in persons, by possession ; or in things; by agi- 
 tation. 
 
 2. Extraordinary ; which I understand to be his 
 appearances in borrowed shapes and bodies, or shadows 
 rather of bodies ; assuming speech, figure, posture, 
 and several powers, of which we can give little or no 
 account; in which extraordinary maner of appear- 
 ances, he is either limited by a superior power, or 
 limits himself politically, as being not the way most 
 for his interest or purpose, to act in his business, 
 which is more effectually done in his state of obscu- 
 rity. 
 
 Hence we must suppose the Devil has it very much 
 in his own choice, whether to act in one capacity, or 
 in the other, or in both ; that is to say, of appearing, 
 and not appearing, as he finds for his purpose. In this 
 state of invisibility, and under the operation of these 
 powers and liberties, he performs all his functions and 
 offices, as devil, as prince of darkness, as god of this 
 world, as tempter, accuser, deceiver, and all whatsoever 
 other names of office, or titles of honor, he is known 
 by. 
 
 Now taking him in this large unlimited, or little 
 limited state of action, he is well called, the god of 
 this world ; for he has very much of the attribute of 
 omnipresence, and may be said, either by himself, or 
 his agents, to be everywhere, and see everything; that 
 is to say, everything that is visible; for I cannot allow 
 him any share of omniscience at all. 
 
 That he rages about everywhere, is with us. and 
 sometimes in us, sees when he is not seen, hears when 
 he is not heard, comes in without leave, and goes out 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 175 
 
 without noise; is neither to be shut in, or shut out; 
 that when he runs from us, we cannot catch him; arid 
 when he runs after us, we cannot escape him ; is seen 
 when he is not known, and is known when he is not 
 seen ; all these things, and more, we have knowledge 
 enough about, to convince us of the truth of them; 
 so that, as I have said above, he is certainly walking 
 to and fro through the earth, &c. after some manner 
 or other, and in some figure or other, visible or in- 
 visible, as he finds occasion. Now, in order to make 
 our history of him complete, the next question before 
 us is, how, and in what manner, he acts with man- 
 kind ? How his kingdom is carried on ; and by what 
 methods he does his business, for he certainly has a 
 great deal of business to do ; he is not an idle specta- 
 tor, nor is he walking about incognito, and clothed in 
 mist and darkness, purely in kindness to us, that we 
 should not be frighted at him; but it is in policy, that 
 he may act undiscovered, that he may see and not be 
 seen, may play his game in the dark, and not be de- 
 tected in his roguery ; that he may prompt mischief, 
 raise tempests, blow up coals, kindle strife, embroil 
 nations, use instruments, and not be known to have 
 his hand in anything; when at the same time he 
 really has an hand in everything. 
 
 Some are of opinion, and I among the rest, that if 
 the Devil was personally and visibly present among 
 us, and we conversed with him face to face, we should 
 be so familiar with him in a little time, that his ugly 
 figure would not affect us at all ; that his terrors would 
 not fright us ; or that we should any more trouble our- 
 selves about him, than we did with the great comet in 
 1678, which appeared so long, and so constantly, 
 without any particular known event, that at last we 
 took no more notice of it, than of the other ordinary 
 stars which had appeared before we or our ancestors 
 were born. 
 
 Nor indeed should we have much reason to be 
 frighted at him, or at least none of those silly things 
 could be said of him, which we now amuse ourselves 
 about, and by which we set him up, like a scare-crow, 
 to fright children and old women, to fill up old stories, 
 make songs and ballads ; and, in a word, carry on the 
 
176 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 low-prized buffoonry of the common people ; we should 
 either see him in his angelic form, as he was from 
 the original; or, if he has any deformities entailed 
 upon him by the supreme sentence, and injustice to 
 the deformity of his crime, they would be of a superior 
 nature, and fitted more for our contempt as well as 
 horror, than those weak-fancied trifles contrived by 
 our ancient devil-raisers and devil-makers, to feed the 
 wayward fancies of old witches and sorcerers, who 
 cheated the ignorant world with a devil of their own 
 making, set forth in terror, with bat's wings, horns, 
 cloven foot, long tail, forked tongue, and the like. 
 
 In the next place, be his frightful figure what it 
 would, and his legions as numerous as the host of 
 heaven, we should see him still, as the prince of devils, 
 though monstrous as a dragon, flaming as a comet, tall 
 as a mountain, yet dragging his chain after him equal 
 to the utmost of his supposed strength ; always in cus- 
 tody of his gaolers the angels, his power overpowered, 
 his rage cowed and abated, or at least awed, and un- 
 der correction, limited and restrained; in a word, we 
 should see him a vanquished slave, his spirit broken, 
 his malice, though not abated, yet hand-cuffed and 
 overpowered, and he not able to work anything against 
 us by force; so that he would be to us but like the 
 lions in the tower, engaged and lacked up, unable to 
 do the hurt he wishes to do, and that we fear, or in- 
 deed any hurt at all. 
 
 From hence it is evident, that it is not his business 
 to be public, or to walk up and down in the world 
 visibly, and in his own shape; his affairs require a 
 quite different management, as might be made appa- 
 rent from the nature of things, and the manner of 
 our actings, as men, either with ourselves, or to one 
 another. 
 
 Nor could he be serviceable in his generation, as a 
 public person, as now he is, or answer the end of his 
 party who employ him. and who, if he was to do their 
 business in public, as he does in private, would not be 
 able to employ him at all. 
 
 As in our modem meetings for the propagation of 
 impudence, and other virtues, there would be no enter- 
 tainment, and no improvement for the good of the age. 
 
THB MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 177 
 
 if the people did not all appear in masque, and con- 
 cealed from the common observation ; so neither could 
 Satan (from whose management those more happy 
 assemblies are taken, as copies of a glorious original,) 
 perform the usual and necessary business of his pro- 
 fession, if he did not appear wholly in covert, and un- 
 der needful disguises. How, but for the convenience 
 of his habit, could he cast himself into so many shapes, 
 act on so many different scenes, and turn so many 
 wheels of state in the world, as he has done? as a mere 
 professed devil he could do nothing. 
 
 Had he been obliged always to. act the mere devil in 
 his own clothes, and with his own shape, appearing 
 uppermost in all cases and places, he could never have 
 preached in so many pulpits, presided in so many 
 councils, voted in so many committees, sat in so many 
 courts, and influenced so many parties and factions in 
 church and state, as we have reason to believe he has 
 done in our nation, and in our memories too, as well 
 as in other nations and in more ancient times. The 
 share Satan has had in all the weighty confusions of the 
 times, ever since the first ages of Christianity in the 
 world, has been carried on with so much secrecy, and 
 so much with an air of cabal and intrigue, that nothing 
 can have been managed more subtly and closely ; and 
 in the same manner has he acted in our times in order 
 to conceal his interest, and the influence he has had in 
 the councils of the world. 
 
 Had it been possible for him to have raised the flames 
 of rebellion and war so often in this nation, as he cer- 
 tainly has done? Could he have agitated the parties 
 on both sides, and inflamed the spirits of three nations, 
 if he had appeared in his own dress, a mere naked 
 devil? It is not the Devil as a devil that does the 
 mischief, but the Devil in masquerade, Satan in full 
 disguise, and acting at the head of civil confusion and 
 distraction. 
 
 If history may be credited, the French court at the 
 time of our old confusions was made the scene of 
 Satan's politics, and prompted both parties in England 
 and in Scotland also, to quarrel ; and how was it 
 done ? Will any man offer to scandalize the Devil so 
 much as to say, or so much as to suggest, that Satan 
 
179 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 had no hand in it? Did not the Devil, by the agency 
 of Cardinal Richelieu, send four hundred thousand 
 crowns at one time, and six hundred thousand at 
 another, to the Scots, to raise an army, and march 
 boldly into England? and did not the same Devil, at 
 the same time, by other agents, remit eight hundred 
 thousand crowns to the other party,, in order to raise 
 an army to fall upon the Scots? Nay, did not the 
 Devil, with the same subtlety, send down the Arch- 
 bishop's order to impose the service-book upon the 
 people in Scotland ; and at the same time raise a mob 
 against it, in the great church (at St. Giles's)? Nay, 
 did not he actually, in the person of an old woman, 
 (his favorite instrument,) throw the three-legged stool 
 at the service-book, and animate the zealous people to 
 take up arms for religion, and turn rebels for God's 
 sake ? 
 
 All these happy and successful undertakings, though 
 it is no more to be doubted they were done by the 
 agency of Satan, and in a very surprising manner too, 
 yet were all done in secret, by what I call possession 
 and injection, and by the agency and contrivance of 
 such instruments, or by the Devil in the disguise of 
 such servants as he found out fitted to be employed in 
 his work, and whom he took a more effectual care in 
 concealing of. 
 
 But we shall have occasion to touch all this part 
 over again, when we come to discourse of the par- 
 ticular habits and disguises which the Devil has 
 made use of, all along in the world, the better to cover 
 his actions, and to conceal his being concerned in 
 them. 
 
 In the mean time the cunning or artifice the Devil 
 makes use of in all these things is in itself very con- 
 siderable; it is an old practice of his using, and he has 
 gone on in divers measures, for the better concealing 
 himself in it; which measures, though he varies some- 
 times, as his extraordinary affairs require, yet they are 
 in all ages much the same, and have the same ten- 
 dency ; namely, that he may get all his business car- 
 ried on by the instrumentality of fools ; that he may 
 make mankind agents in their own destruction ; and 
 that he may have all his work done in such' a manner 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 179 
 
 as that he may seem to have no hand in it; nay, he 
 contrives so well, that the very name devil is put upon 
 his opposite party, and the scandal of the black agent 
 lies all upon them. 
 
 In order then to look a little into his conduct, let us 
 inquire into the common mistakes about him, see what 
 use is made of them to his advantage, and how far 
 mankind is imposed upon in those particulars, anoTo 
 what purpose. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of Satan's agents or missionaries, and their actings 
 upon and in the winds of me?i, in his name. 
 
 INFINITE advantages attend the Devil in his retired 
 government, as they respect the management of his 
 interests, and the carrying on his absolute monarchy 
 in the world ; particularly as it gives him room to act 
 by the agency of his inferior ministers and messengers, 
 called on many occasions his angels, of whom he has 
 an innumerable multitude at his command, enough, for 
 aught we know, to spare one to attend every man and 
 woman now alive in the world ; and of whom, if we 
 may believe our second sight Christians, the air is 
 always as full as a beam of the evening sun is of in- 
 sects, where they are ever ready for business, and to 
 go and come as their great governor issues out orders 
 for their directions. 
 
 These, as they are all of the same spirituous quality 
 with himself, and consequently invisible like him, ex- 
 cept as above, are ready upon all occasions to be sent 
 to and into any such person, and for such purposes, 
 superior limitations only excepted, as the grand direc- 
 tor of devils, (the Devil, properly so called.) guides 
 them ; and be the subject, or the object, what it will, 
 that is to say, be the person they are sent to. or into, 
 as above, who it will, and the business the messenger 
 is to do what it will, they are sufficiently qualified; 
 for this is a particular to Satan's messengers or agents, 
 that they are not like us human devils here in the 
 
180 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 world, some bred up one way, and some another, 
 some of one trade, some of another, and consequently 
 some fit for some business, some for another, some 
 good for something, and some good for nothing, but 
 his people are every one fit for everything, can find 
 their way everywhere, and are a match for everybody 
 they are sent to ; in a word, there are no foolish 
 devils, they are all fully qualified for their employ- 
 ment, fit for anything he sets them about, and very 
 seldom mistake their errand, or fail in the business 
 they are sent to do. 
 
 Nor is it strange at all, that the Devil should have 
 such a numberless train of deputy devils to act under 
 him; for it must be acknowledged he has a great deal 
 of business upon his hands, a vast deal of work to do, 
 abundance of public affairs under his direction, and an 
 infinite variety of particular cases always before him. 
 For example : 
 
 How many governments in the world are wholly in 
 his administration ? How many divans and great 
 councils under his direction 1 Nay, I believe, it would 
 be hard to prove, that there is or has been one council 
 of state in the world for many hundred years past, 
 down to the year 1713, (we do not pretend to come 
 nearer home,) where the Devil by himself, or his 
 agents, in one shape or another, has not sat as a mem- 
 ber, if not taken the chair. 
 
 And though some learned authors may dispute this 
 point with me, by giving some examples, where the 
 councils of princes have been acted by a better hand, 
 and where things have been carried against Satan's 
 interest, and even to his great mortification, it amounts 
 to no more than this ; namely, that in such cases the 
 Devil has been outvoted ; but it does not argue but he 
 might have been present there, and have pushed his 
 interest as far as he^could, only that he had not the 
 success he expected ; for I don't pretend to say that he 
 has never been disappointed; but those examples are 
 so rare, and of so small signification, that when I 
 come to the particulars, as I shall do in the sequel of 
 this history, you will find them hardly worth naming; 
 and that, take it one time with another, the Devil has 
 met with such a series of success in all his affairs, and 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 181 
 
 has so seldom been balked; and where he has met 
 with a little check in his politics, has, notwithstanding, 
 so soon, and so easily recovered himself, regained his 
 lost ground, or replaced himself in another country, 
 when he has been supplanted in one, that his empire 
 is far from being lessened in the world for the last 
 thousand years of the Christian establishment. 
 
 Suppose we take an observation from the beginning 
 of Luther, or from the year 1420, and call the Refor- 
 mation a blow to the Devil's kingdom, which before 
 that was come to such an height in Christendom, that 
 it is a question not yet thoroughly decided, whether 
 that medley of superstition and horrible heresies, that 
 mass of enthusiasm and idols, called the Catholic 
 hierarchy, was a church of God, or a church of the 
 Devil ; whether it was an assembly of saints, or a 
 synagogue of Satan : I say, take that time to be the 
 epoch of Satan's declension, and of Lucifer's falling 
 from heaven, that is, from the top of his terrestrial 
 glory ; yet, whether he did not gain in the defection 
 of the Greek church, about that time, and since, as 
 much as he lost in the reformation of the Roman, is 
 what authors are not yet agreed about, not reckoning 
 what he has regained since of the ground which he 
 had lost even by the reformation ; namely, the coun- 
 tries of the Duke of Savoy's dominion, where the 
 reformation is almost eaten out by persecution ; the 
 whole Valtoline, and some adjacent countries ; the 
 whole kingdom of Poland, and almost all Hungary ; 
 for, since the last war, the reformation, as it were, lies 
 gasping for breath, and expiring, in that country ; also 
 several large provinces in Germany, as Austria, 
 Carinthia, and the whole kingdom of Bohemia, where 
 the reformation once powerfully planted, received its 
 death's wound at. the battle of Prague, anno 1627, and 
 languished but a very little while, died, and was 
 buried, and good king Popery reigned in its stead. 
 
 To these countries thus regained to Satan's infernal 
 empire, let us add his modern conquests, and the en- 
 croachments he has made upon the reformation in the 
 present age, which are, however light we make of 
 them, very considerable ; namely, the Electorate of 
 the Rhine, and the Palatinate, the one fallen to the 
 16 
 
182 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEYIL, 
 
 House of Bavaria, and the other to that of Newburgrr, 
 both popish ; the Duchy of Deux Fonts fallen just 
 now to a popish branch, the whole Electorate of Sax- 
 ony fallen under the power of popish government by 
 the apostasy of their princes, and more likely to follow 
 the fate of Bohemia, whenever the diligent Devil can 
 bring his new project in Poland to bear, as it is more 
 than probable he will do some time or other. 
 
 But to sum up the dull story ; we must add, in the 
 roll of the Devil's conquests, the whole kingdom of 
 France, where we have in one year seen, to the im- 
 mortal glory of the Devil's politics, that his measures 
 have prevailed to the total extirpation of the protestant 
 churches without a war ; and that interest, which for 
 two hundred years had supported itself in spite of 
 persecutions, massacres, five civil wars, and innumer- 
 able battles and slaughters, at last received its mortal 
 wound from its own champion, Henry IV., and sunk 
 into utter oblivion, by Satan's most exquisite manage- 
 ment, under the agency of his two prime ministers, 
 Cardinal Richelieu, and Louis the XlVth. whom he 
 entirely possessed. 
 
 Thus far we have a melancholy view of the Devil's 
 new conquests, and the ground he has regained upon 
 the reformation ; in which his secret management has 
 been so exquisite, and his politics so good, that could 
 he but bring one thing to pass, which by his own for- 
 mer mistake (for the Devil is not infallible,) he has 
 rendered impossible, he would bring the protestant 
 interest so near its ruin, that heaven would be, as it 
 were, put to the necessity of working by miracle to 
 prevent it ; the case is thus : 
 
 Ancient historians tell us, and from good authority, 
 that the Devil finding it for his interest to bring his 
 favorite, Mahomet, upon the stage, and spread the vic- 
 torious half-moon upon the ruin of the cross, having, 
 with great success, raised first the Saracen empire, and 
 then the Turkish, to such an height, as that the name 
 of Christian seemed to be extirpated in those two 
 quarters of the world, which were then not the great- 
 est only, but by far the most powerful, I mean Asia 
 and Africa ; having totally laid waste all those ancient 
 and flourishing churches of Africa, the labors of St. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 183 
 
 Cyprian, Tert Lillian, St. Augustine, and six hundred 
 and seventy Christian bishops and fathers, who gov- 
 erned there at once ; also all the churches of Smyrna, 
 Philadelphia, Ephesus, Sardis, Antioch, Laodicea, and 
 innumerable others in Pontus, Bithynia, and the pro- 
 vinces of the lesser Asia ; 
 
 The Devil having, I say, finished these conquests so 
 much to his satisfaction, began to turn his eyes north- 
 ward ; and though he had a considerable interest in the 
 Whore of Babylon, and had brought his power, by the 
 subjection of the Roman hierarchy, to a great height, 
 yet finding the interest of Mahomet most suitable to 
 his devilish purposes, as most adapted to the destruc- 
 tion of mankind, and laying waste the world, he 
 resolved to espouse the growing power of the Turk, 
 and bring him in upon Europe like a deluge. 
 
 In order to this, and to make way for an easy con- 
 quest, like a true devil, he worked under ground, and 
 sapped the foundation of the Christian power, by sow- 
 ing discord among the reigning princes of Europe; 
 that so envying one another, they might be content to 
 stand still and look on, while the Turk devoured them 
 one by one, and, at last, might swallow them all up. 
 
 This devilish policy took to his heart's content ; the 
 Christian princes stood still, stupid, dozing and uncon- 
 cerned, till the Turk conquered Thrace, overrun Ser- 
 via, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and all the remains of the 
 Grecian empire, and last the imperial city of Constan- 
 tinople itself. 
 
 Finding this politic method so well answer his ends, 
 the Devil, who always improves upon the success of 
 his own experiments, resolved, from that time, to lay 
 a foundation for the making those divisions and jeal- 
 ousies of the Christian princes immortal ; whereas they 
 were at first only personal, and founded in private 
 quarrels between the princes respectively ; such as 
 emulation of one another's glory, envy at the extraor- 
 dinary valor, or other merit, of this or that leader, or 
 revenge of some little affront ; for which, notwith- 
 standing, so great was the piety of Christian princes 
 in those days, that they made no scruple to sacrifice 
 whole armies, yea, nations, to their piques, and pri- 
 
184 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 vate quarrels ; a certain sign whose management they 
 were under. 
 
 These being the causes by which the Devil first 
 sowed the seeds of mischief among them, and the suc- 
 cess so well answering his design, he could not but 
 wish to have the same advantage always ready at his 
 hand; and therefore he resolved to order it so, that 
 these divisions, which, however useful to him, were 
 only personal, and consequently temporary, like an 
 annual in the garden, which must be raised anew 
 every season, might for the future be rational, and 
 consequently durable and immortal. 
 
 To this end it was necessary to lay the foundation 
 of eternal feud, not in the humors and passions of men 
 only, but in the interests of nations. The way to do 
 this was to form and state the dominion of those 
 
 Erinces, by such a plan drawn in hell, and laid out 
 *om a scheme truly political, of which the Devil was 
 chief engineer ; that the divisions should always 
 remain, being made a natural consequence of the situ- 
 ation of the country, the temper of their people, the 
 nature of their commerce, the climate, the manner of 
 living, or something which should for ever render it 
 impossible for them to unite. 
 
 This, I say, was a scheme truly infernal, in which 
 the Devil was as certainly the principal operator, to 
 illustrate great things by small, as ever John of Ley- 
 den was of the High Dutch rebellion, or Sir John 
 
 B 1 of the late project, called the South Sea Stock. 
 
 Nor did this contrivance of the Devil at all dishonor 
 its author, or the success appear unworthy of the 
 undertaker ; for we see it not only answered the end, 
 and made the Turk victorious at the same time, and 
 formidable to Europe ever after, but it works to this 
 day ; the foundation of the divisions remains in all the 
 several nations, and that to such a degree, that it is 
 impossible they should unite. 
 
 This is what I hinted before, in which the Devil 
 was mistaken, and is another instance that he knows 
 nothing of what is to come; for this very foundation 
 of immortal jealousy and discord between the several 
 nations of Spain, France, Germany and others, which 
 the Devil himself, with so much policy, contrived, and 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 185 
 
 which served his interests so long, is now the only ob- 
 struction to his designs, and prevents the entire ruin of 
 the reformation ; for though the reformed countries are 
 very powerful, and some of them, as Great Britain and 
 Prussia are particularly, more powerful than ever; yet 
 it cannot be said that the Protestant interests in gene- 
 ral are stronger than formerly, or so strong as they 
 were in 1623, under the victorious arms of the Swede. 
 On the other hand, were it possible that the popish 
 powers, to wit, of France, Spain, Germany, Italy, and 
 Poland, which are entirely popish, could heartily unite 
 their interests, and should join their powers to attack 
 the Protestants, the latter would find it very difficult, 
 if not impossible, to defend themselves. 
 
 But as fatal as such an union of the popish powers 
 would be, and as useful as it would be to the Devil's 
 cause at this time, not the Devil with all his angels is 
 able to bring it to pass ; no, not with all his craft and 
 cunning; he divided them, out he cannot unite them; 
 so that even just as it is Avith men, so it is with devils, 
 they may do in an hour what they cannot undo in an 
 age. 
 
 This may comfort those faint-hearted Christians 
 among us, who cry out of the dangers of religious war 
 in Europe, and what terrible things will happen when 
 France, and Spain, and Germany, and Italy, and Po- 
 land, shall all unite. Let this answer satisfy them, 
 the Devil himself can never make France and Spain, 
 or France and the emperor, unite ; jarring humors may 
 be reconciled, but jarring interests never can. They 
 may unite so as to make peace, though that can hardly 
 be long, but never so as to make conquests together; 
 they are too much afraid of one another, for one to bear 
 that any addition of strength should come to the other. 
 But this is a digression. We shall find the Devil mis- 
 taken and disappointed too on several occasions, as we 
 go along, 
 
 I return to Satan's interest in the several govern- 
 ments and nations, by virtue of his invisibility, and 
 which he carries on by possession : it is by this invis- 
 ibility that he presides in all the councils of foreign 
 powers ; (for we never mean our own, that we always 
 premise;) and what though it is alleged by the critics, 
 
186 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 that he does not preside, because there is always a 
 president; I say, if he is not in the president's chair, 
 yet if he be in the president himself, the difference is 
 not much ; and if he does not vote as a counsellor, if 
 he votes in the counsellor, it is much the same; and 
 here, as it was in the story of Abab, the king of Israel, 
 as he was a lying spirit in the mouths of all his proph- 
 ets; so we find him a spirit of some particular evil 
 quality or other, in all the transactions and transactors 
 on that stage of life we call the state. 
 
 Thus he was a dissembling spirit in Charles IX., a 
 turbulent spirit in Charles V. emperor ; a bigoted spirit 
 of fire and fagot in our Queen Mary ; an apostate 
 spirit in Henry IV. ; a cruel spirit in Peter of Castile ; 
 a revengeful spirit in Ferdinand II. ; a phaeton in 
 Louis XIV. ; a Sardanapalus in C II. 
 
 In the great men of the world, take them a degree 
 lower than the class of crowned heads, he has the 
 same secret influence; and hence it comes to pass, that 
 the greatest heroes, and men of the highest character 
 for achievements of glory, either by their virtue or 
 valor; however they have been crowned with victories, 
 and elevated by human tongues, whatever the most 
 consummate virtues or good qualities they have been 
 known by, yet they have always had some devil or 
 other in them, to preserve Satan's claim to them unin- 
 terrupted, and prevent their escape out of his hands; 
 thus we have seen a bloody devil in a D' Alva ; a pro- 
 fligate devil in a Buckingham ; a lying, artful, or 
 politic devil in a Richelieu ; a treacherous devil in a 
 Mazarin ; a cruel, merciless devil in a Cortez ; a de- 
 bauched devil in an Eugene ; a conjuring devil in a 
 
 Luxemburg ; and a covetous devil in a M h. In 
 
 a word, tell me the man, I will tell you the spirit that 
 reigned in him. 
 
 Nor does he thus carry on his secret management by 
 possession in men of the first magnitude only; but 
 have you not had evidences of it among ourselves? 
 How has he been a lying spirit in the mouths of our 
 prophets, a factious spirit in the heads of our politicians, 
 a proud spirit in my Lord Plausible, a bullying spirit 
 in my Lord Bugbear, a talkative spirit in his grace the 
 duke of Rattle-hail, a scribbling spirit in my Lord 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 187 
 
 Hateful, a run-away spirit in my Lord Frightful ; and 
 so through a long roll of heroes, whose exceeding and 
 particular qualifications proclaim loudly what handle 
 the Devil took them by, and how fast he held them ! 
 for these were all men of ancient fame ; I hope you 
 know that. 
 
 From men of figure, we descend to the mob, and it 
 is there the same thing. Possession, like the plague, 
 is morbus plebcei : not a family but he is a spirit of 
 strife and contention among them : not a man but he 
 has a part in him ; he is a drunken devil in one, a vile 
 devil in another, a thieving devil in a third, a lying 
 devil in a fourth, and so on to a thousand, and an 
 hundred thousand, ad infinitum. 
 
 Nay, even the ladies have their share in the posses- 
 sion ; and if they have not the Devil in their heads, 
 in their faces, or their tongues, it must be some poor 
 despicable devil that Satan did not think it worth his 
 while to meddle with ; and the number of those that 
 are below his operation, I doubt is very small. But 
 that part I have much more to say to in its place. 
 
 From degrees of persons, to professions and employ- 
 ments, it is the same. We find the Devil is a true 
 posture-master, he assumes any dress, appears in any 
 shape, counterfeits every voice, acts upon every stage ; 
 here he wears a gown, there a long robe ; here he wears 
 the jack-boots, there the small sword ; is here an en- 
 thusiast, there a buffoon ; on this side he acts the 
 mountebank, on that side the merry Andrew ; nothing 
 comes amiss to him, from the great Mogul to the 
 scaramouch; the Devil is in them, more or less, and 
 plays his game so well, that he makes sure work with 
 them all. He knows where the common foible lies, 
 which is universal passion, what handle to take hold 
 of every man by, and how to cultivate his interest so, 
 as not to fail of his end, or mistake the means. 
 
 How then can it be denied but that his acting thus 
 in tenebris, and keeping out of the sight of the world, 
 is abundantly his interest ; and that he could do nothing 
 comparatively speaking, by any other method? 
 
 Infinite variety illustrates the Devil's reign among 
 the sons of men ; all which he manages with admira- 
 ble dexterity, and a slight particular to himself, by the 
 
188 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 mere advantage of his present concealed situation, and 
 which, had he been obliged to have appeared in public, 
 had been all lost, and he capable of just nothing at 
 all, or at least of nothing more than the other ordinary 
 politicians of wickedness could have done without 
 him. 
 
 Now, authors are much divided as to the manner 
 how the Devil manages his proper instruments for mis- 
 chief; for Satan has a great many agents in the dark, 
 who neither have the Devil in them, nor are they much 
 acquainted with him, and yet he serves himself of 
 them, whether of their folly, or of that other frailty 
 called wit, it is all one, he makes them do his work, 
 when they think they are doing their own ; nay, so 
 cunning is he in his guiding the weak part of the world, 
 that even when they think they are serving God, they 
 are doing nothing less or more than serving the Devil ; 
 nay, it is some of the nicest part of his operation, to 
 make them believe they are serving God,, when they 
 are doing his work. Thus those who the Scripture 
 foretold should persecute Christ's church in the latter 
 days, were to think they do God good service. Thus 
 the Inquisition (for example,) it may be, at this time, 
 in all the acts of Christian cruelty which they are so 
 famous for, (if any of them are ignorant enough not to 
 know that they are devils incarnate,) may, for ought 
 we know, go on for God's sake ; torture, murder, starve 
 to death, mangle, and macerate, and all for God, and 
 God's Catholic church ; and it is certainly the Devil's 
 master-piece to bring mankind to such a perfection of 
 devilisrn as that of the Inquisition is ; for if the Devil 
 had not been in them, could they christen such an hell- 
 fire judicature as the Inquisition is, by the name of the 
 Holy Office ? And so in paganism, how could so many 
 nations among the poor Indians offer human sacrifices 
 to their idols, and murder thousands of men, women, 
 and children, to appease this god of the air, when he 
 is angry, if the Devil did not act in them under the 
 vizor of devotion 1 
 
 But we need not go to America, or to the Inquisition, 
 not to paganism or to popery either, to look for people 
 that. are sacrificing to the Devil, or that give their 
 peace-offerings to him, while they are offered upon 
 
THE MODERxN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 189 
 
 God's altar. Are not our churches, (ay, and meeting- 
 houses too. as much as they pretend to be more sanc- 
 tified than their neighbors,) full of Devil- worshippers 7 
 
 Do not the sons of God make assignations with the 
 daughters of men, in the very house of worship? Do 
 they not talk to them in the language of the eyes 1 
 And what is at the bottom of it, while one eye is upon 
 the prayer book, and the other adjusting their dress 7 
 Are they not sacrificing to Venus and Mercury, nay, 
 and the very Devil they dress at ? 
 
 Let any man impartially survey the church gestures, 
 the air, the postures, and the behavior ; let him keep 
 an exact roll, and if I do not show him two Devil- 
 worshippers for one true saint, then the word saint 
 must have another signification than I ever yet under- 
 stood by it. 
 
 The church (as a place) is the receptacle of the dead, 
 as well as the assembly of the living. What relates 
 to those below, I doubt Satan, if he would be so kind, 
 could give a better account of than I can ; but as to 
 the superficies, I pretend to so much penetration as to 
 tell you, that there are more spectres, more apparitions 
 always there, than you that know nothing of the mat- 
 ter, may be aware of. 
 
 I happened to be at an eminent place of God's most 
 devout worship the other day, with a gentleman of my 
 acquaintance, who, I observed, minded very little the 
 business he ought to come about ; first I saw him al- 
 ways busy staring about him, and bowing this way 
 and that way, nay he made two or three bows and 
 scrapes when he was repeating the responses to the ten 
 commandments, and assure you, he made it correspond 
 strangely, so that the harmony was not so broken in 
 upon as you would e^xpect it should. Thus : Lord, 
 (and a bow to a fine lady just come up to her seat,) 
 have mercy upon us ; (three bows to a throng of ladies 
 that came into the next pew all together,) and incline 
 (then stopped to make a great scrape to my Lord) 
 our hearts just then the hearts of all the church were 
 gone off from the subject, for the response was over ; 
 so he huddled up the rest in whispers; for God could 
 hear him well enough, he said, nay, as well as if he 
 had spoken as loud as his neighbors did. 
 
190 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 After we were come home, I asked him what he 
 meant by all this, and what he thought of it. 
 
 " How could I help it?" said he, "I must not be 
 rude." 
 
 ;c What," said I, " rude to whom ?" 
 
 " Why," says he, " there came in so many ladies, I 
 could not help it." 
 
 " What," said I, " could not you help bowing when 
 you were saying your prayers ?" 
 
 " O sir !" says he, " the ladies would have thought 
 1 had slighted them ; I could riot avoid it." 
 
 " Very well," said I, -' then you would be rude to 
 God, because you could not be rude to the Devil ?" 
 
 " Why, that is true," said he, " but what can we 
 do ? There is no going to church, as the case stands 
 now, if we must not worship the Devil a little between 
 whiles." 
 
 This is the case indeed, and Satan carries his point 
 on every hand ; for if the fair-speaking world, and the 
 fair-looking world are generally devils, that is to say, 
 are in his management, we are sure the foul-speaking 
 and the foul-doing world are all on his side ; and you 
 have then only the fair-doing part of the world that 
 are out of his class ; and when we speak of them, O 
 how few ! 
 
 But I return to the Devil's managing our wicked 
 part ; for this he does with most exquisite subtilty ; 
 and this is one part of it ; namely, he thrusts our vices 
 into our virtues, by which he mixes the clean and the 
 unclean ; and thus, by the corruption of the one, 
 poisons and debauches the other, so that the slave he 
 governs cannot account for his own common actions, 
 and is fain to be obliged to his Maker, to accept of the 
 heart, without the hands and feqt ; to take, as we vul- 
 garly express it, the will for the deed, and if Heaven 
 was not so good to come into that half-and-half ser- 
 vice, I don't see but the Devil would carry away all 
 his servants. Here indeed I should enter into a long 
 detail of involuntary wickedness, which, in short, is 
 neither more nor less than the Devil in everybody, ay, 
 in every one of you, (our governors excepted,) take it 
 as you please. 
 
 What is our language, when we look back with 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 191 
 
 reflection and reproach on past follies ? I think I was 
 bewitched. I was possessed, certainly the Devil was 
 in me, or else I had never been such a sot. Devil in 
 you, sir, ay, who doubts it 1 you may be sure the 
 Devil was in you, and there he is still, and next time 
 he can catch you in the same snare, you will be just 
 the same sot that you say you were before. 
 
 In short, the Devil is too cunning for us, and man- 
 ages us his own way ; he governs the vices of men by 
 his own methods ; though every crime will not make 
 a man a devil, yet it must be owned, that every crime 
 puts the criminal, in some measure, into the Devil's 
 power, gives him a title to the man, and he treats him 
 magisterially ever after. 
 
 Some tell us every single man, every individual, has 
 a devil attending him, to execute the orders of the 
 (grand signor) Devil of the whole clan ; that this 
 attending evil angel, for so he is called, sees every step 
 you take, is with you in every action, prompts you to 
 every mischief, and leaves you to do everything that 
 is pernicious to yourself; they also allege, that there 
 is a good spirit which attends him too, which latter is 
 always accessory to everything that we do that is 
 good, and reluctant to evil. If this is true, how comes 
 it to pass that those two opposite spirits do not quarrel 
 about it when they are pressing us to contrary actions, 
 one good, and the other evil ? And why does the evil 
 tempting spirit so often prevail ? Instead of answering 
 this difficult question, I shall only tell you, as to this 
 story of good and evil angels attending every partic- 
 ular person, it is a good allegory indeed to represent 
 the struggles in the mind of men, between good and 
 evil inclinations ; but to the rest, the best thing I can 
 say of it is, that I think it is a fib. 
 
 But to take things as they are, and only talk by way 
 of natural consequence, for to argue from nature is 
 certainly the best way to find out the Devil's story; if 
 there are good and evil spirits attending us, that is to 
 say, a good angel and a devil, then it is no unjust 
 reproach upon anybody to say, when they follow the 
 dictates of the latter, the Devil is in them ; or they are 
 devils ; nay, I must carry it farther still, namely, that 
 as the generality and greatest number of peeple do 
 
192 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 follow and obey the evil spirit, and not the good, and 
 that the predominant power is allowed to be the nom- 
 inating power ; you must then allow, that, in short, the 
 greater part of mankind has the Devil in them, and so 
 I come to my text. 
 
 To this purpose, give me leave to borrow a few 
 lines of a friend, on this very part of the Devil's 
 management : 
 
 To places and persons he suits his disguises, 
 
 And dresses up all his banditti, 
 Who, as pickpockets flock to a country assizes, 
 
 Crowd up to the court and the city. 
 
 They 're at every elbow, and every ear, 
 
 And ready at every call, sir ; 
 The vigilant scout plants his agents about, 
 
 And has something to do with us all, sir. 
 
 In some he has part, and in some he 's the whole, 
 
 And of some, (like the vicar of Baddow,) 
 It can neither be said they have body or soul j 
 
 But only are devils in shadow. 
 
 The pretty and witty are devils in masque, 
 
 The beauties are mere apparitions ; 
 The homely alone by their faces are known, 
 
 And the good by their ugly conditions. 
 
 The beaux walk about like the shadows of men ; 
 
 And wherever he leads 'em, they follow : 
 But take 'em and shake 'em, there 's not one in ten 
 
 But 's as light as a feather and hollow. 
 
 Thus all his aifairs he drives on in disguise, 
 
 And he tickles mankind with a feather ; 
 Creeps in at our ears, and looks out at our eyes, 
 
 And jumbles our senses together. 
 
 He raises the vapors, and prompts the desires, 
 And to every dark deed holds the candle j 
 
 The passions inflames, and the appetite fires, 
 And takes everything by the handle. 
 
 Thus he walks up and down in complete masquerade, 
 
 And with every company mixes, 
 Sells in every shop, works at every trade, 
 
 And everything doubtful perplexes. 
 
 How Satan comes by this governing influence in 
 the minds, and upon the actions, of men ? is a question 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 193 
 
 I am not yet come to, nor indeed does it so particu- 
 larly belong to the Devil's history, it seems rather a 
 polemic, so it may pass at school among the meta- 
 physics, and puzzle the heads of our masters. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of the Devil' s management in the Pagan hierarchy, 
 by omens, entrails, augurs, oracles, and sucJi like 
 pageantry of hell ; and how they went off the stage 
 at last by the introduction of true religion. 
 
 [ HAVE adjourned, not finished, my account of the 
 Devil's secret management by possession, and shall 
 reassume it, in its place ; but I must take leave to 
 mention some other parts of his retired scheme, by 
 which he has hitherto managed mankind ; and the 
 first of these is by that fraud of all frauds, called 
 oracle. 
 
 Here his trumpet yielded an uncertain sound for 
 some ages, and like what he was, and according to 
 what he practised from the beginning, he delivered 
 out falsehood and delusion by retail. The priests of 
 Apollo acted this farce for him, to a great nicety, at 
 Delphos ; there were divers others, at the same time, 
 and some, which, to give the Devil his due, he had 
 very little hand in, as we shall see presently. 
 
 There were also some smaller, some greater, some 
 more, some less famous places where those oracles 
 were seated, and audience given to the inquirers ; in 
 all which the Devil, or somebody for him, permissu 
 superiorum, for either vindictive or other hidden ends 
 and purposes, was allowed to make at least a preten- 
 sion to the knowledge of things to come ; but, as public 
 cheats generally do, they acted in masquerade, and 
 gave such uncertain and inconsistent responses, that 
 they were obliged to use the utmost art to reconcile 
 events to the prediction, even after things were come 
 to pass. 
 
 Here the Devil was a lying spirit, in a particular 
 
194 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 and extraordinary manner, in the mouths of all the 
 prophets ; and yet he had the*cunning to express him- 
 self so, that, whatever happened, the oracle was sup- 
 posed to have meant as it fell out ; and so all their 
 augurs, omens and voices, by which the Devil amused 
 the world, not at that time only, hut since, have been 
 likewise interpreted. 
 
 Julian, the apostate, dealt mightily in these amuse- 
 ments; but the Devil, who neither wished his fall, or 
 presaged it to him, evidenced that he knew nothing 
 of Julian's fate ; for that, as he sent almost to all the 
 oracles of the East, and summoned all the priests 
 together, to inform him of the success of his Persian 
 expedition, they all, like Ahab's prophets, having a 
 lying spirit in them, encouraged him. and promised 
 him success. 
 
 Nay, all the ill omens which disturbed him, they 
 presaged good from ; for example, he was at a pro- 
 digious expense, when he was at Antioch, to buy up 
 white beasts, and white fowls, for sacrifices, and for 
 predicting from the entrails ; from whence the Anti- 
 ochians, in contempt, called him Victimarius ; but 
 whenever the entrails foreboded evil, the cunning 
 Devil made the priests put a different construction 
 upon them, and promise him good. When he entered 
 into the temple of the Genii, to offer sacrifice, one of 
 the priests dropped down dead ; this, had it had any 
 signification more than a man falling dead of an 
 apoplectic, would have signified something fatal to 
 Julian, who made himself a brother sacrist or priest; 
 whereas the priests turned it presently to signify the 
 death of his colleague, the Consul Sallust, which hap- 
 pened just at the same time, though eight hundred 
 miles off. So, in another case, Julian thought it 
 ominous, that he, who was Augustus, should be 
 named with two other names of persons, both already 
 dead. The case was thus ; the style of the emperor 
 was Julianus Felix Augustus, and two of his principal 
 officers were Juliaixus and Felix ; now both Julianus 
 and Felix died within a few days of one another, 
 which disturbed him much, who was the third of the 
 three names; but his flattering devil told him it all 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 195 
 
 imported good to him ; namely, that though Julianus 
 and Felix would die, Augustus should be immortal. 
 
 Thus, whatever happened, and whatever was fore- 
 told, and how much soever they differed from one 
 another, the lying spirit was sure to reconcile the pre- 
 diction and the event, and make them at least seem to 
 correspond in favor of the person inquiring. 
 
 Now we are told oracles are ceased, and the Devil 
 is farther limited for the good of mankind, not being 
 allowed to vent his delusions by the mouths of the 
 priests and augurs, as formerly : I will not take upon 
 me to say, how far they are really ceased, more than 
 they were before ; I think it is much more reasonable 
 to believe there was never any reality in them at all, 
 or that any oracle ever gave out any answers but 
 what were the invention of the priests, and the delu- 
 sions of the Devil ; I have a great many ancient authors 
 on my side in this opinion, as Ensebius, Tertullian, 
 Aristotle, and others, who, as they lived so near the 
 pagan times, and when even some of those rites were 
 yet in use, they had much more reason to know, and 
 could probably pass a better judgment upon them; nay, 
 Cicero himself ridicules them in the openest manner ; 
 again, other authors descend to particulars, and show 
 how the cheat was managed by the heathen sacrists 
 and priests, and in what enthusiastic manner they 
 spoke ; namely, by going into the hollow images, such 
 as the brazen bull, and the image of Apollo, and how 
 subtly they gave out dubious and ambiguous answers; 
 that when the people did not find their expectations 
 answered by the event, they might be imposed upon 
 by the priests, arid confidently told they did not rightly 
 understand the oracle's meaning. However, I cannot 
 say but that indeed there are some authors of good 
 credit too, who will have it, that there was a real pro- 
 phetic spirit in the voice or answers given by the 
 oracles, and that oftentimes they were miraculously 
 exact in those answers ; and they give that of the 
 Delphic oracle answering the question which was 
 given about Crcesus, for an example ; namely, What 
 Croesus was doing at that time ? to wit, that he was 
 boiling a lamb and the flesh of a tortoise together, in a 
 
196 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 brass vessel, or boiler, with a cover of the same metal ; 
 that is to say, in a kettle with a brass cover. 
 
 To affirm, therefore, that they were all cheats, a 
 man must encounter with antiquity, and set his pri- 
 vate judgment up against an established opinion ; but 
 it is no matter for that. If I do not see anything in 
 that received opinion capable of evidence, much less 
 of demonstration, I must be allowed still to think as I 
 do ; others may believe as they list ; I see nothing hard 
 or difficult in the thing; the priests, who were always 
 historically informed of the circumstances of the in- 
 quirer, or at least something about them, might easily 
 find some ambiguous speech to make, and put some 
 double entendre upon them, which, upon the event, 
 solved the credit of the oracle, were it one way or 
 other ; and this they certainly did, or we have room to 
 think the Devil knows less of things now than he did 
 in former days. 
 
 It is true, that by these delusions the priests got in- 
 finite sums of money ; and this makes it still probable 
 that they would labor hard, and use the utmost of 
 their skill, to uphold the credit of their oracles ; and it 
 is a full discovery, as well of the subtlety of the 
 sacrists, as of the ignorance and stupidity of the peo- 
 ple, in those early days of Satan's witchcraft, to see 
 what merry work the Devil made with the world, 
 and what gross things he put upon mankind. Such 
 was the story of the Dodonian oracle in Epirus ; 
 namely, That two pigeons flew out of Thebes, (N. B., 
 it was the Egyptian Thebes.) from the temple of Belus, 
 erected there by the ancient sacrists, and that one of 
 these fled eastward into Libya, and the deserts of 
 Africa, and the other into Greece, namely, to Dodona ; 
 and these communicated the divine mysteries to one 
 another, and afterwards gave mystical solutions to the 
 devout inquirers ; first the Dodonian pigeon, perching 
 upon an oak, spoke audibly to the people there, that 
 the gods commanded them to build an oracle or tem- 
 ple, to Jupiter, in that place; which was accord- 
 ingly done. The other pigeon did the like on the hill 
 in Africa, where it commanded them to build another 
 to Jupiter Ammon, or Hammon. 
 
 Wise Cicero contemned all this, and, as authors tell 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 197 
 
 us, ridiculed the answer, which, as I have hinted 
 above, the oracle gave to Croesus, proving that the 
 oracle itself was a liar ; that it could not come from 
 Apollo, for that Apollo never spoke Latin. In a word, 
 Cicero rejected them all. Arid Demosthenes also 
 mentions the cheats of the oracles ; when speaking of 
 the oracle of Apollo, he said. Pythia philippized ; 
 that is, that when the priests were bribed with money, 
 they always gave their answers in favor of Philip of 
 Macedon. 
 
 Bat that which is most strange to me is, that in this 
 dispute about the reality of oracles, the heathen, who 
 made use of them, are the people who expose them, 
 and who insist most positively upon their being cheats 
 and impostors, and in particular those mentioned above; 
 while the Christians, who reject them, yet believe they 
 did really foretell things, answer questions, &c., only 
 with this difference, that the heathen authors, who 
 oppose them, insist that it is all delusion and cheat, and 
 charge it upon the priests ; and the Christian opposers 
 insist that it was real, but that the Devil, not the Gods, 
 gave the answers ; and that he was permitted to do it 
 by a superior power, to magnify that power in the total 
 silencing them at last. 
 
 But, as I said before, I am with the heathen here, 
 against the Christian writers ; for I take it all to be a 
 cheat and delusion. I must give my reason for it, or 
 I do nothing; my reason is this: I insist Satan is as 
 blind in matters of futurity as we are, and cari*tell 
 nothing of what is to come. These oracles often pre- 
 tending to predict, could be nothing else therefore but 
 a cheat formed by the money-getting priests to amuse 
 the world, and bring grist to their mill. If I meet with 
 anything in my way to open my eyes to a better 
 opinion of them, I shall tell it you as I go on. 
 
 On the other hand, whether the Devil really spake 
 in those oracles, or set the cunning priests to speak for 
 him ; whether they predicted, or only made the people 
 believe they predicted; whether they gave answers 
 which came to pass, or prevailed upon the people to 
 believe that what was said did come to pass, it was 
 much at one, and fully answered the Devil's end ; 
 namely, to amuse and delude the world : and as to do. 
 17* 
 
198 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 or to cause to be done, is the same part of speech, so 
 whoever did it, the Devil's interest was carried on by 
 it, his government preserved, and all the mischief he 
 could desire was effectually brought to pass, so that 
 every way they were the Devil's oracles ; that is out 
 of the question. 
 
 Indeed I have wondered sometimes why, since by 
 this sorcery the Devil performed such wonders, that 
 is, played so many tricks in the world, and had such 
 universal success, he should set up no more of them ; 
 but there might be a great many reasons given for 
 that, too long to tire you with at present. It is true, 
 there were not many of them ; and yet, considering 
 what a great deal of business they dispatched, it was 
 enough ; for six or eight oracles were more than suf- 
 ficient to amuse all the world. The chief oracles we 
 meet with in history are among the Greeks and the 
 Romans; namely, 
 
 That of Jupiter Ammon, in Lydia, as above. 
 
 The Dodonian. in Epirus. 
 
 Apollo Delphicus, in the country of Phocis, in 
 Greece. 
 
 Apollo Clarius, in Asia Minor. 
 
 Seraphis, in Alexandria, in Egypt. 
 
 Trophonius, in Boeotia. 
 
 Sibylla Cumgea, in Italy. 
 
 Diana, at Ephesus. 
 
 Apollo Daphneus, at Antioch. 
 
 Besides many of lesser note, in several other planes, as 
 I have hinted before. 
 
 I have nothing to do here with the story mentioned 
 by Plutarch, of a voice being heard at sea, from some 
 of the islands, called the Echinades, and calling upon 
 Tharnuz, an Egyptian, who was on board a ship, bid- 
 ding him, when he came to the Palodes, other islands 
 in the Ionian sea, tell them there, that the great god 
 Pan was dead. And when Thamuz performed it, 
 great groanings and howlings, and lamentations were 
 heard from the shore. 
 
 This tale tells but indifferently, though indeed it 
 looks more like a Christian fable, than a pagan ; because 
 it seems as if made to honor the Christian worship, and 
 blast all the pagan idolatry ; and for that reason I re- 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 1D9 
 
 ject it, the Christian profession needing no such fabulous 
 stuff to confirm it. 
 
 Nor is it true, in fact, that the oracles did cease im- 
 mediately upon the death of Christ ; but, as I noted 
 before, the sum of the matter is this; the Christian re- 
 ligion spreading itself universally, as well as miracu- 
 lously, and that too by the foolishness of preaching, 
 into all parts of the world, the oracles ceased ; that is 
 to say, their trade ceased, their rogueries were daily 
 detected, the deluded people, being better taught, came 
 no more after them; and being ashamed as well as dis- 
 couraged, they sneaked out of the world as well as 
 they could ; in short, the customers fell off, and the 
 priests, who were the shopkeepers, having no business 
 to do, shut up their shops, broke, and went away; the 
 trade and the tradesmen were hissed off the stage to- 
 gether ; so that the Devil, who, it must be confessed, 
 got infinitely by the cheat, became bankrupt, arid was 
 obliged to set other engines to work, as other cheats 
 and deceivers do, who, when one trick grows stale, and 
 will serve no longer, are forced to try another. 
 
 Nor was the Devil to seek in new measures ; for 
 though he could not give out his delusive trash, as he did 
 before, in pomp and state, with the solemnity of a tem- 
 ple, and a set of enthusiasts, called priests, who played 
 a thousand tricks to amuse the world, he had then 
 recourse to his old Egyptian method, which indeed 
 was more ancient than that of oracles ; and that was 
 by magic, sorcery, familiars, witchcraft, and the like. 
 
 Of this we find the people of the south, that is, of 
 Arabia and Chaldea, were the first, from whence we 
 are told the wise men, that is to say, magicians, 
 were called Chaldeans and soothsayers. Hence, also, 
 we find Ahaziah, the king of Israel, sent to Baalzebub, 
 the god of Ekron, to inquire whether he should live or 
 die? This, some think, was a kind of an oracle, 
 though others think it was only some overgrown ma- 
 gician, who counterfeited himself to be a Devil, and 
 obtained upon that idol-hunting age to make a cun- 
 ning man of him ; and for that purpose he got himself 
 made a priest of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, and 
 gave out answers in his name. Thus those merry fel- 
 lows in Egypt, Jarmes and Jambres, are said to mimic 
 
200 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Moses and Aaron, when they worked the miraculous 
 plagues upon the Egyptians ; and we have some in- 
 stances in scripture to support this, such as the witch 
 of Endor, the king Manasses, who dwelt with the 
 Devil openly, and had a familiar; the woman men- 
 tioned Acts xvi. who had a spirit of divination, and 
 who got money by playing the oracle; that is, answer- 
 ing doubtful questions, &c., which spirit, or devil, tfye 
 apostles cast out. 
 
 Now though it is true, that the old women in the 
 world have rilled us with tales, some improbable, others 
 impossible; some weak, some ridiculous; and that this 
 puts a general discredit upon all the graver matrons 
 who entertain us with stories better put together; yet 
 it is certain, and I must be allowed to affirm, that the 
 Devil does not disdain to take into his service many 
 troops of good old women, arid old women-men too, 
 whom he finds it is for his service to keep in constant 
 pay. To these he is found frequently to communicate 
 his mind, and oftentimes we find them such proficients, 
 that they know much more than the Devil can teach 
 them. 
 
 I confess it is not very incongruous with the Devil's 
 temper, or with the nature of his business, to shift 
 hands; possibly he found that he had tired the world 
 with oracular cheats; that men began to be surfeited 
 with them, and grew sick of the frauds which were so 
 frequently detected; that it was time to take new 
 measures, and contrive some new trick to bite the 
 world, that he might not be exposed to contempt ; or, 
 perhaps he saw the approach of new light, which the 
 Christian doctrine, bringing with it, began to spread 
 in the minds of men ; that it would outshine the dim 
 burning ignis fatuus with which he had so long 
 cheated mankind ; and was afraid to stand it, lest he 
 should be mobbed off the stage by his own people, 
 when their eyes should begin to open. That, upon this 
 foot, he might, in policy, withdraw from those old re- 
 treats, the oracles, and restrain those responses before 
 they lost all their credit ; for we find the people seemed 
 to be at a mighty loss for some time for want of them, 
 so that it made them run up and down to conjurers, 
 and man-gossips, to brazen heads, speaking calves, and 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 201 
 
 innumerable simple things, so gross that they are 
 scarce fit to be named, to satisfy the itch of having 
 their fortunes told them, as we call it. 
 
 Now, as the Devil is very seldom blind to his own 
 interest, and therefore thought fit to*quit his old way 
 of imposing upon the world by his oracles, only 
 because he found the world began to be too wise to be 
 imposed upon that way ; so, on the other hand, finding 
 there was still a possibility to delude the world, though 
 by other instruments, he no sooner laid down his 
 oracles and the solemn pageantry, magnificent appear- 
 ances, and other frauds of his priests and votaries, in 
 their temples and shires, but he set up a new trade ; and 
 having, as I have said, agents and instruments suffi- 
 cient for any business that he could have to employ 
 them in, he begins in corners, as the learned and 
 merry Dr. Brown says, and exercises his minor trump- 
 eries by way of his own contriving, lifting a great 
 number of new found operators, such as witches, ma- 
 gicians, diviners, figure casters, astrologers, and such 
 inferior seducers. 
 
 Now, it is true, as that doctor says, this was run- 
 ning into corners, as if he had been expelled his more 
 triumphant way of giving audience in form, which for 
 so many ages had been allowed him ; yet I must add, 
 that as it seemed to be the Devil's own doing, from a 
 right judgment of his affairs, which had taken a new 
 turn in the world, upon the shining of new lights from 
 the Christian doctrine, so it must be acknowledged the 
 Devil made himself amends upon mankind, by the 
 various methods he took, and the multitude of instru- 
 ments he employed ; and perhaps deluded mankind in 
 a more fatal and sensible manner than he did before, 
 though not so universally. 
 
 He had indeed before more pomp and figure put 
 upon it, and he cheated mankind then in a way of 
 magnificence and splendor ; but this was not in above 
 eight or ten principal places, and not fifty places in all, 
 public or private : whereas now fifty thousand of his 
 angels and instruments, visible and invisible, hardly 
 may be said to suffice for one town or city; but, in 
 short, as his invisible agents fill the air, and are at 
 hand for mischief, on every emergency, so his visible 
 
202 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 tools swarm in every village, arid you have scarce an 
 hamlet, or a town, but his emissaries are at hand for 
 business ; and, which is still worse, in all places he 
 finds business; nay, even where religion is planted, 
 and seems to flourish ; yet he keeps his" ground, and 
 pushes his interest according to what has been said 
 elsewhere, upon the same subject, that wherever 
 religion plants, the Devil plants close by it. 
 
 Nor, as I say, does he fail of success; delusion 
 spreads like a plague, and the Devil is sure of votaries ; 
 like a true mountebank, he can always bring a crowd 
 about his stage, and that some time faster than other 
 people. 
 
 What I observe upon this subject is this ; that the 
 world is at a loss for want of the Devil. If it was not 
 so, what is the reason that, upon the silencing the 
 oracles, and religion telling them that miracles are 
 ceased, and that God has done speaking by prophets, 
 they never inquire, whether Heaven has established 
 any other or new way of revelation, but away they 
 run with their doubts and difficulties, to these dream- 
 ers of dreams, tellers of fortunes, and personal oracles, 
 to be resolved ; as if, when they acknowledge the 
 Devil is dumb, these could speak ; and as if the 
 wicked spirit could do more than the good, the diabol- 
 ical more than the divine ; or that Heaven, having 
 taken away the Devil's voice, had furnished him with 
 an equivalent, by allowing scolds, termagants, and old, 
 weak arid superannuated wretches, to speak for him ; 
 for these are the people we go to now in our doubts 
 and emergencies. 
 
 While this blindness continues among us, it is non- 
 sense to say, that oracles are silenced, or the Devil is 
 dumb ; for the Devil gives audience still, by his dep- 
 uties ; only as Jeroboam made priests of the meanest 
 of the people, so he is grown a little humble, and 
 makes use of meaner instruments than he did before ; 
 for whereas the priests of Apollo and of Jupiter were 
 splendid in their appearance, of grave and venerable 
 aspect, and sometimes of no mean quality; now he 
 makes use of scoundrels and rabble, beggars and vag- 
 abonds, old hags, superannuated miserable hermits, 
 gypsies and strollers, the pictures of envy and ill luck. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 203 
 
 Either the Devil is grown an ill master, and gives 
 but mean wages, that he can get no hetter servants : 
 or else common sense is grown very low priced and 
 contemptible ; that such as these are fit tools to continue 
 the succession of fraud, and carry on the Devil's inter- 
 est in the world ; for were not the passions and temper 
 of mankind deeply preengaged in favor of this dark 
 
 Erince, we could never suffer ourselves to accept of his 
 ivors, by the hands of such contemptible agents as 
 these. How do we receive his oracles from an old 
 witch of particular eminence, and whom we believe to 
 be more than ordinary inspired from hell ? I say, we 
 receive the oracle with reverence ; that is to say, with 
 a kind of horror, with regard to the black prince it 
 comes from ; and, at the same time, turn our faces 
 away from the wretch that mumbles out the answers, 
 lest she should cast an evil eye, as we call it, upon us, 
 and put a devil into us, when she plays the Devil 
 before us. How do we listen to the cant of those 
 worst of vagabonds, the gypsies, when, at the same 
 time, we watch our hedges and hen-roosts, for fear of 
 their thieving? 
 
 Either the Devil uses us more like fools than he did 
 our ancestors, or we really are worse fools than those 
 ages produced ; for they were never deluded by such 
 low-priced devils as we are; by such despicable Bride- 
 well devils, that are fitter for a whipping-post than an 
 altar, and, instead of being received as the voice of an 
 oracle, should be sent to the house of correction, for 
 pickpockets. 
 
 Nor is this accidental, and here and there one of 
 these wretches to be seen ; but, in short, if it has been 
 in other nations as it is with us, I do not see that the 
 Devil was able to get any better people into his pay, 
 or at least very rarely. Where have we seen anything 
 above a tinker turn wizard ? And where have we had 
 a witch of quality among us ? 
 
 Magicians, soothsayers, devil-raisers, and such peo- 
 ple, we have heard much of. but seldom above the 
 degree of the meanest of the mean people, the lowest 
 of the lowest rank. Indeed the woi'davise men, which 
 the Devil would fain have had his agents honored 
 with, was used a while in Egypt, and in Persia, among 
 
204 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 the Chaldeans; but it continued but a little while, and 
 never reached so far northward as our country ; nor, 
 however the Devil has managed it, have many of our 
 great men, who have been most acquainted with him, 
 ever been able to acquire the title of wise men. 
 
 But I may be told this relates to wise men in 
 another constitution, or wise men as they are opposed 
 to fools ; whereas we are talking of them now under 
 another class, namely, as wise men, or magicians, 
 soothsayers, &c., such as were in former times called 
 by that name. 
 
 But to this I answer, that, take them in which sense 
 you please, it may be the same ; for if I were to ask 
 the Devil the character of the best statesmen he had 
 employed among us for many years past, I am apt to 
 think that though oracles are ceased, he would hon- 
 estly, according to the old ambiguous way, when I 
 asked if they were Christians, answer they were (his) 
 Privy Counsellors. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Of the extraordinary appearance of the Devil, and par- 
 ticularly of the cloven foot. 
 
 SOME people would fain have us treat this tale of the 
 Devil's appearing with a cloven foot with more solem- 
 nity than I believe the Devil himself does ; for Satan, 
 who knows how much of a cheat it is, must certainly 
 ridicule it, in his own thoughts, to the last degree ; but 
 as he is glad of any way to hoodwink the understand- 
 ings, and bubble the weak part of the world ; so, if he 
 sees men willing to take every scarecrow for a devil, 
 it is not his business to undeceive them. On the other 
 hand, he finds it in his interest to foster the cheat, and 
 serve himself of the consequence. Nor could I doubt 
 but the Devil, if any mirth be allowed him, often 
 laughs at the many frightful shapes and figures we 
 dress him up in, find especially to see how willing we 
 are first to paint him as black, and make him appear 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 205 
 
 as ugly as we can, and then stare and start at the 
 spectrum of our own making. 
 
 The truth is, that among all the horribles that we 
 dress up Satan in, I cannot but think we show the 
 least of invention in this of a goat, or a thing with a 
 goat's foot, of all the rest; for though a goat is a crea- 
 ture made use of by our Saviour, in the allegory of the 
 day of judgment, and is said there to represent the 
 wicked rejected party, yet it seems to be only on 
 account of their similitude to the sheep, and so to rep- 
 resent the just fate of hypocrisy and hypocrites ; and, 
 in particular, to form the necessary antithesis in the 
 story ; for else, our whimsical fancies excepted, a 
 sheep, or a lamb, has a cloven foot, as well as a goat ; 
 nay, if scripture be of any value in the case, it is to 
 the Devil's advantage; for the dividing the hoof was 
 the distinguishing character or mark of a clean beast; 
 and how the Devil can be brought into that number, 
 is pretty hard to say. 
 
 One would have thought, if we had intended to 
 have given a just figure of the Devil, it would have 
 been more apposite to have ranked him among the 
 cat kind, and given him a foot, (if he is to be known 
 by his foot,) like a lion, or like a red dragon, being the 
 same creatures which he is represented by in the text ; 
 and so his claws would have had some terror in them, 
 as well as his teeth. 
 
 But neither is the goat a true representative of the 
 Devil at all, for we do not rank the goats among the 
 subtle or cunning part of the brutes; he is counted a 
 fierce creature indeed of his kind, though nothing like 
 those other above mentioned ; and he is emblematically 
 used to represent a lustful temper, but even that part 
 does not fully serve to describe the Devil, whose oper- 
 ation lies principally another way. 
 
 Besides, it is not the goat himself that is made use 
 of, it is the cloven hoof only, and that so particularly, 
 that the cloven hoof of a ram, or a swine, or any 
 other creature, may serve as well as that of a goat ; 
 only that history gives us some cause to call it the 
 goat's foot. 
 
 In the next place, it is understood by us not as a 
 bare token to know Satan by, but as if it were a brand 
 18 
 
206 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 upon him, and that, like the mark God put upon Cain, 
 it was given him for a punishment, so that he cannot 
 get leave to appear without it, nay, cannot conceal it 
 whatever other dress or disguise he may put on; and 
 as if it was to make him as ridiculous as possible, they 
 will have it be, that whenever Satan has occasion to 
 dress himself in any human shape, be it of what de- 
 gree soever, from the king to the beggar, be it of a fine 
 lady or of an old woman (the latter, it seems, he often- 
 est assumes,) yet still he not only must have this clo- 
 ven foot about him, but he is obliged to show it too; 
 nay, they will not allow him any dress, but the cloven 
 foot; they will not so much as allow him an artificial 
 shoe, or a jack boot, as we often see contrived to con- 
 ceal a club foot, or a wooden leg : but that the Devil 
 may be known wherever he goes, he is bound to show 
 his foot. They might as well oblige him to set a bill 
 upon his cap, as folks do upon a house to be let, and 
 have it written in capital letters, / am the Demi. 
 
 It must be confessed this is very particular, and 
 would be very hard upon the Devil, if it had not an- 
 other article in it, which is some advantage to him, and 
 that is, that the fact is not true; but the belief of this 
 is so universal, that all the world runs away with it : 
 by which mistake the good people miss the Devil many 
 times where they look for him. and meet him as often 
 where they did not expect him, and when for want of 
 this cloven foot they did not know him. 
 
 Upon this very account I have sometimes thought, 
 not that this has been put upon him by mere fancy, 
 and the cheat of an heavy imagination, propagated by 
 fable, and chimney-corner-divinity; but that it has 
 been a contrivance of his own ; and that, in short, the 
 Devil raised this scandal upon himself, that he might 
 keep his disguise the better, and might go a visiting 
 among his friends without being known ; for were it 
 really so, that he could go nowhere without this 
 particular brand of infamy, he could not come into 
 company ; the reason is plain, he would be always 
 discovered, exposed, and forced to leave the good com- 
 pany, or, which would be as bad, the company would 
 all cry out the Devil, and run out of the room as they 
 were frighted; nor could all the help of invention do 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 207 
 
 him any service, no dress he could put on would cover 
 him ; not all his friends could furnish him with an 
 habit that would disguise or conceal him, this unhappy 
 foot would spoil it all. Now this would be so great a 
 loss to him, that I question whether he could carry on 
 any of his most important affairs in the world without 
 it; for though he has access to mankind in his com- 
 plete disguise, I mean that of his invisibility, yet the 
 learned very much agree in this, that his corporal pres- 
 ence in the world is absolutely necessary, upon many 
 occasions, to support his interest, and keep up his cor- 
 respondences, and particularly to encourage his friends, 
 when numbers are requisite to carry on his affairs ; 
 but this part I shall have occasion to speak of again, 
 when I come to consider him as a gentleman of busi- 
 ness in his locality, and under the head of visible ap- 
 parition ; but I return to the foot. 
 
 As I have thus suggested, that the Devil himself 
 has politically spread about this notion concerning his 
 appearing with a cloven foot, so I doubt not that he 
 has thought it for his purpose to paint this cloven foot 
 so lively in the imaginations of many of our people, 
 and especially of those clear-sighted folks, who see the 
 Devil when he is not to be seen, that they would make 
 no scruple to say, nay, and to make affidavit too, even 
 before Satan himself, whenever he sat upon the bench, 
 that they had seen his worship's foot at such and such 
 a time. This I advance the rather, because it is very 
 much for his interest to do this ; for if we had not many 
 witnesses, viva voce, to testify it, we should have had 
 some obstinate fellows always among us, who would 
 have denied the fact, or at least have spoken doubtfully 
 of it ; and so have raised disputes and objections 
 against it, as impossible, or at least as improbable ; 
 buzzing one ridiculous notion or other into our ears, as 
 if the Devil was not so black as he was painted; that 
 he had no more a cloven foot than a pope, whose apos- 
 tolical toes have so often been reverentially kissed by 
 kings and emperors ; but now, alas ! this part is out 
 of the question. Not the man in the moon, not the 
 groaning-board, not the speaking of Friar Bacon's 
 brazen head, not the inspiration of Mother Shipton, or 
 the miracles of Dr. Faustus, things as certain as death 
 
208 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 and taxes, can be more firmly believed. The Devil 
 not have a cloven foot ! I doubt not but I could, in a 
 short time, bring you a thousand old women together, 
 that would as soon believe there was no Devil at all ; 
 nay, they will 'tell you, he could not be a Devil with- 
 out it, any more than he could come into the room, 
 and the candles not burn blue ; or go out, and not leave 
 a smell of brimstone behind him. 
 
 Since then the certainty of the thing is so well 
 established, and there are so many good and substan- 
 tial witnesses ready to testify, that he has a cloven 
 foot, and that they have seen it too : nay, and that we 
 have antiquity on our side, for we have this truth 
 confirmed by the testimony of many ages : why should 
 we doubt it any longer ? We can prove, that many 
 of our ancestors have been of this opinion, and divers 
 learned authors have left it upon record, as particular- 
 ly that learned familiarist Mother Hazel, whose writ- 
 ings are to be found in MSS. in the famous library at 
 Pye-Corner ; also the admired Joan of Amesbury ; the 
 history 'of the Lancashire Witches: and the reverend 
 Exorcist of the Devils of London, whose history is 
 extant among us to this day. All these and many 
 more may be quoted, and their writings referred to, 
 for the confirmation of the antiquity of this truth ; but 
 there seems to be no occasion for farther evidence, it is 
 enough, Satan himself, if he did not raise the report, 
 yet tacitly owns the fact; at least he appears willing 
 to have it believed, and be received as a general truth, 
 for the reasons above. 
 
 But besides all this, and as much a jest as some un- 
 believing people would have this story pass for, who 
 knows but that if Satan is empowered to assume any 
 shape or body, and to appear to us visibly, as if really 
 so shaped; I say, who knows but he may, by the same 
 authority, be allowed to assume the addition of the 
 cloven foot, or two or four cloven feet, if he pleased ? 
 and why not a cloven foot as well as any other foot, 
 if he thinks fit? For if the Devil can assume a shape, 
 and can appear to mankind in a visible form, it may, 
 I doubt not, with as good authority, be advanced, that 
 he is left at liberty to assume what shape he pleases, 
 and to choose what case of flesh and blood he will 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 209 
 
 please to wear, whether real or imaginary; and if this 
 liberty be allowed him, it is an admirable disguise for 
 him to come generally with his cloven foot, that when 
 he finds it for his purpose, on special occasions, to 
 come without it, as I said above, he may not be sus- 
 pected. But take this with you, as you go, that all 
 this is upon a supposition, that the Devil can assume a 
 visible shape, and make a real appearance, which, 
 however, I do not yet think fit to grant, or deny. 
 
 Certain it is, the first people who bestowed a cloven 
 foot upon the Devil, were not so despicable as you may 
 imagine, but were real favorites of heaven ; for did not 
 Aaron set up the Devil of a calf in the congregation, 
 and set the people a dancing about it for a god 1 Upon 
 which occasion, expositors tell us, that particular com- 
 mand was given, Levit. xvii. 7, " They shall no more 
 offer their sacrifices unto Devils, after whom they have 
 gone a whoring." Likewise King Jeroboam set up the 
 two calves, one at Dan, and the other at Bethel ; and 
 we find them charged afterwards with setting up the 
 worship of Devils, instead of the worship of God. 
 
 After this we find some nations actually sacrificed to 
 the Devil, in the form of a ram, and others of a goat ; 
 from which, and that above of the calves at Horeb, I 
 doubt not the story of the cloven foot first derived ; 
 and it is plain, that the worship of that calf at Horeb 
 is meant in the Scripture quoted above, Levit. xvii. 7, 
 " Thou shalt no more offer sacrifices unto Devils. " 
 The original is Seghnirim; that is. rough and hairy 
 goats, or calves. And some think also, in this shape, 
 the Devil most ordinarily appeared to the Egyptians 
 and Arabians, from whence it was derived. 
 
 Also, in the old writings of the Egyptians, I mean 
 their hieroglyphic writing, before the use of letters was 
 known, we are told, this was the mark that he was 
 known by ; and the figure of a goat was the hierogly- 
 phic of the Devil. Some will affirm, that the Devil 
 was particularly pleased to be so represented. How 
 they came by their information, and whether they had 
 it from his own mouth, or not, authors have not yet 
 determined. 
 
 But be this as it will, I do not see that Satan could 
 have been at a loss for some extraordinary figure to 
 18* 
 
210 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 have bantered mankind with though this had not been 
 thought of; but thinking of the cloven foot first, and 
 the matter being indifferent, this took place, and easily 
 rooted itself in the bewildered fancy of the people ; and 
 now it is riveted too fast for the Devil himself to re- 
 move it, if he was disposed to try ; but, as I said above, 
 it is none of his business to solve doubts, or remove 
 difficulties out of our heads, but to perplex us with 
 more, as much as he can. 
 
 Some people carry this matter a great deal higher 
 still, and will have the cloven foot be like the great 
 stone which the Brazilian conjurers used to solve all 
 difficult questions upon, after having used a great many 
 monstrous and barbarous gestures and distortions of 
 their bodies, and cut certain marks, or magical figures 
 upon the stone. So, I say, they will have this cloven 
 foot be a kind of a conjuring stone ; arid tell us, that, 
 in former times, when Satan drove a greater trade with 
 mankind, in public, than he has done of late, he gave 
 this cloven foot as a token to his particular favorites, 
 to work wonders with, and to conjure by ; and that 
 witches, fairies, hobgoblins, and such things, of which 
 the ancients had several kinds, at least in their imagi- 
 nation, had all a goat's leg, with a cloven foot, to put 
 on upon extraordinary occasions. It seems this method 
 is of late grown out of practice; and so, like the melt- 
 ing of marble, and the painting of glass, it is laid aside, 
 among the various useful arts which, history tells us, 
 are lost to the world. What may be practised in the 
 fairy world, if such a place there be, we can give no 
 particular account at present. 
 
 But neither is this all ; for other would-be- wise 
 people take upon them to make farther and more con- 
 siderable improvements upon this doctrine of the cloven 
 foot, and treat it as a most significant instrument of 
 Satan's private operation ; and that as Joseph is said 
 to divine, that is to say, to conjure by his golden cup, 
 which was put into Benjamin's sack ; so the Devil has 
 managed several of his secret operations, and posses- 
 sions, and other hellish mechanisms, upon the spirits 
 as well as bodies of men, by the medium or instrumen- 
 tality of the cloven foot; accordingly it had a kind of 
 an hellish inspiration in it, and a separate and magical 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 211 
 
 power, by which he wrought his infernal miracles. 
 That the cloven foot had a superior signification, and 
 was not only emblematic and significative of the con- 
 duct of men, but really guided their conduct in the 
 most important affairs of life ; and that the agents the 
 Devil employed to influence mankind, and to delude 
 them, and draw them into all the snares and traps that 
 he lays continually for their destruction, were equip- 
 ped with this foot, in aid of their other powers for 
 mischief. 
 
 Here they read us learned lectures upon the sove- 
 reign operations which the Devil is at present master 
 of, in the government of human affairs ; and how the 
 cloven foot is an emblem of the true double entendre, 
 or divided aspect, which the great men of the world 
 generally act with, and by which all their affairs are 
 directed ; from whence it comes to pass, that there is 
 no such thing as a single-hearted integrity, or an up- 
 right meaning to be found in the world. That man- 
 kind, worse than the ravenous brutes, preys upon his 
 own kind and devours them by all the laudable 
 methods of flattery, whine, cheat, and treachery; 
 crocodile-like, weeping over those it will devour, de- 
 stroying those it smiles upon ; and, in a word, devours 
 its own kind, which the very beasts refuse, and that 
 by all the ways of fraud and allurement that hell can 
 invent; holding out a cloven divided hoof, or hand, 
 pretending to save, when the very pretence is made use 
 of to ensnare and destroy. 
 
 Thus the divided hoof is the representative of a di- 
 vided double tongue, and heart, an emblem of the most 
 exquisite hypocrisy, the most fawning and fatally de- 
 ceiving flattery. And here they give us very diverting 
 histories, though tragical in themselves, of the manner 
 which some of the Devil's inspired agents have man- 
 aged themselves under the especial influence of the 
 cloven foot. How they have made war under the pre- 
 tence of peace; murdered garrisons under the most 
 sacred capitulations; massacred innocent multitudes 
 after surrenders to mercy. 
 
 Again, they tell us the cloven foot has been made 
 use of in all treasons, plots, assassinations, and secret 
 as well as open murders and rebellions. Thus Joab, 
 
212 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 under the treason of an embrace, showed IIOAV dex- 
 terously he could manage the cloven foot, and struck 
 Abner under the fifth rib. Thus David played the 
 cloven foot upon poor Uriah, when he had a mind to 
 injure him. Thus Brutus played it upon Ceesar; and, 
 to come nearer home, we have had a great many 
 retrograde motions in this country, by this magical 
 implement, the foot ; such as that of the Earl of Essex's 
 fate, beheading the Queen of Scots, and divers others 
 in Q,ueen Elizabeth's time. That of the Earl of 
 Shrewsbury, and Sir Thomas Overbury, Gondamor, 
 and Sir Walter Raleigh, and many others, in King 
 James the First's time ; in all which, if the cloven foot 
 had not been dexterously managed, those murders 
 had not been so dexterously managed ; or the murder- 
 ers have so well been screened from justice : for 
 which, and the imprecated justice of Heaven unap- 
 peased, some have thought the innocent branches of the 
 royal house of Stuart did not fare the better, in the 
 ages which followed. 
 
 It must be confessed, the cloven foot was in its 
 full exercise in the next reign ; and the generation 
 that rose up immediately after them, arrived to the 
 most exquisite skill for management of it. Here they 
 fasted and prayed, there they plundered and murdered; 
 here they raised Avar for the king, and there they 
 fought against him, cutting throats for God's sake, and 
 deposing both king and kingly government, according 
 to law. 
 
 Nor was the cloven foot unemployed on all sides ; 
 for it is the main excellency of this instrument of hell, 
 that it acts on every side, it is its denominating qual- 
 ity, and is, for that reason, called a cloven or divided 
 hoof. 
 
 This mutilated apparition has been so public in 
 other countries too, that it seems to convince us the 
 Devil is not confined to England only, but that as his 
 empire extended to all the sublunary world, so he gives 
 them all room to see he is qualified to manage them 
 his own way. 
 
 What abundant use did that prince of dissemblers, 
 Charles V. make of this foot? It was by the help of 
 this apparition of the foot that he baited his hook 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 213 
 
 with the city of Milan, and tickled Francis I. of 
 France so well with it, that when he passed through 
 France, and was in that king's power, he let him go, 
 and never got the bait off of the hook neither ; it 
 seems the foot was not on King Francis' side at that 
 time. 
 
 How cruelly did Philip II. of Spain manage this 
 foot, in the murder of the nobility of the Spanish 
 Netherlands, the assassination of the Prince of Orange, 
 and, at last, in that of his own son, Don Carlos, infant 
 of Spain? And yet, such was the Devil's craft, and 
 so nicely did he bestir his cloven hoof, that this 
 monarch died consolated (though impenitent) in the 
 arms of the church, and with the benediction of the 
 clergy too, those second-best managers of the said hoof 
 in the world. 
 
 I must acknowledge, I agree with this opinion thus 
 far ; namely, that the Devil, acting by this cloven foot 
 as a machine, has done great things in the world for 
 the propagating his dark empire among us ; and his- 
 tory is full of examples, besides the little low-priced 
 things done among us ; for we are come to such a kind 
 of degeneracy in folly, that we have even dishonored 
 the Devil, and put this glorious engine, the cloven foot, 
 to such mean uses, that the Devil himself seems to be 
 ashamed of us. 
 
 But to return a little to foreign history. Besides what 
 has been mentioned above, we find flaming examples 
 of most glorious mischief done by this weapon, when 
 put into the hands of kings and men of fame, in the 
 world. How many games have the kings of France 
 played with this cloven foot, and that within a few 
 years of one another? First, Charles IX. played the 
 cloven foot upon Gasper Coligni, admiral of France, 
 when he caressed him, complimented him, invited him 
 to Paris, to the wedding of the King of Navarre, called 
 him father, kissed him, and when he was wounded, 
 sent his own surgeons to take care of him ; and yet, 
 three days after, ordered him to be assassinated, and 
 murdered, used with a thousand indignities, and at 
 last thrown out of the window into the street, to be in- 
 sulted by the rabble. 
 
 Did not Henry III. in the same country, play the 
 
214 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 cloven foot upon the Duke of Guise, when he called 
 him to his council, and caused him to be murdered as 
 he went in at the door? The Guises again played the 
 same game back upon the king, when they sent out a 
 Jacobin friar to assassinate him in his tent, as he lay 
 at the siege of Paris. 
 
 In a word, this opera of the cloven foot has been 
 acted all over the Christian world, ever since Judas 
 betrayed the Son of God with a kiss ; nay, our Saviour 
 says expressly of him, " One of you is a devil ;" and 
 the sacred text says in another place, " The Devil en- 
 tered into Judas." 
 
 It remains to tell you, that this merry story of the 
 cloven foot is very essential to the history which I am 
 now writing, as it has been all along the great emblem 
 of the Devil's government in the world, and by which 
 all his most considerable engagements have been an- 
 swered, and executed; for as he is said not to be able to 
 conceal this foot, but that he carries it always with him, 
 it imports most plainly, that the Devil would be no 
 devil, if he was not a dissembler, a deceiver, and 
 carried a double entendre in all he does or says ; that 
 he cannot but say one thing and mean another; pro- 
 mise one thing, and do another ; engage, and not per- 
 form; declare, and not intend; and act like a true 
 devil as he is, with a countenance that is no index of 
 his heart. 
 
 I might indeed go back to originals, and derive this 
 cloven foot from Satan's primitive state, as a cheru- 
 birn, or a celestial being; which cherubims, as Moses 
 is said to have seen them about the throne of God, in 
 mount Sinai ; and as the same Moses, from the original, 
 represented them afterwards covering the ark ; had the 
 head and face of a man, wings of an eagle, body of a 
 lion, and legs and feet of a calf. But this is not so 
 much to our present purpose, for as we are to allow 
 that whatever Satan had of heavenly beauty before the 
 fall, he lost it all when he commenced Devil ; so to fetch 
 his original so far up, would be only to say, that he re- 
 tained nothing but the cloven foot ; and that all the 
 rest of him was altered and deformed, become horrible 
 and frightful as the Devil ; but his cloven foot, as we 
 now understand it, is rather mystical and emblematic, 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 215 
 
 and describes him only as the fountain of mischief and 
 treason, and the prince of hypocrites ; and as such we 
 are now to speak of him. 
 
 It is from this original all the hypocritic world copy; 
 he wears the foot on their account, and from this model 
 they act. This made our hlessed Lord tell them "The 
 works of your father ye will do," meaning the Devil, 
 as he had expressed it just before. 
 
 Nor does he deny the use of the foot to the meaner 
 class of his disciples in the world, but decently equips 
 them all, upon every occasion, with a needful propor- 
 tion of hypocrisy and deceit ; that they may hand on 
 the power of promiscuous fraud through all his tempo- 
 ral dominions, and wear the foot always about them, 
 as a badge of their professed share in whatever is done 
 by that means. 
 
 Thus every dissembler, every false friend, every 
 secret cheat, every bear-skin jobber, has a cloven foot ; 
 and so far hands on the Devil's interest by the same 
 powerful agency of art, as the Devil himself uses to 
 act when he appears in person, or would act if he was 
 just now upon the spot ; for this foot is a machine 
 which is to be wound up and wound down, as the 
 cause it appears for requires; and there are agents and 
 engineers to act in it by the directions of Satan (the 
 grand engineer,) who lies still in his retirement, only 
 issuing out his orders as he sees convenient. 
 
 Again, every class, every trade, every shopkeeper, 
 every pedlar, nay, that meanest of tradesmen, the 
 church pedlar the Pope, has a cloven foot, with which 
 he paw-loo's upon the world; wishes them all well, 
 and at the same time cheats them; wishes them all 
 fed, and at the same time starves them ; wishes them 
 all in Heaven, and at the same time marches before 
 them directly to the Devil, d-la-mode de cloven foot. 
 
 Nay, the very bench, the ever-living foundation of 
 justice in the world ; how often has it been made the 
 tool of violence, the refuge of oppression, the seat of 
 bribery and corruption, by this monster in masquerade, 
 and that everywhere, (our own country always ex- 
 cepted!) They had much better wipe out the picture 
 of justice blinded, and having the sword and scales in 
 Jier hand, which in foreign countries is generally 
 
216 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 painted over the seat of those who sit to do justice, and 
 place, instead thereof, a naked, unarmed cloven hoof, 
 a proper emblem of that spirit that influences the 
 world, and of the justice we often see administered 
 among them. Human imagination cannot form an 
 idea more suitable, nor the Devil propose an engine 
 more or better qualified for an operation of justice, by 
 the influence of bribery and corruption ; it is this mag- 
 nipotent instrument in the hands of the Devil, which, 
 under the closest disguise, agitates every passion, 
 bribes every affection, blackens every virtue, gives a 
 double face to words and actions, and to all persons 
 who have any concern to them, and, in a word, makes 
 us all devils to one another. 
 
 Indeed the Devil has taken but a dark emblem to 
 be distinguished by ; for this of a goat was said to be a 
 creature hated by mankind from the beginning, and 
 that there is a natural antipathy in mankind against 
 them : hence the scape- goat was to bear the sins of 
 the people, and to go into the wilderness with all that 
 burden upon him. 
 
 But we have a saying among us, in defence of which 
 we must inquire into the proper sphere of action, which 
 may be assigned to this cloven foot, as hitherto 
 described. The proverb is this : Every devil has not 
 a cloven foot. This proverb, instead of giving us some 
 more favorable thoughts of the Devil, confirms "what I 
 have said already, that the Devil raised this scandal 
 upon himself; I mean the report that he cannot con- 
 ceal or disguise his devil's foot or hoof, but that it 
 must appear, under whatever habit he shows himself; 
 and the reason I gave holds good still ; namely, that 
 he may be more effectually concealed when he goes 
 abroad without it : for if the people were fully per- 
 suaded that the Devil could not appear without this 
 badge of his honor, or mark of his infamy, take it as 
 you will ; and that he was bound also to show it upon 
 all occasions ; it would be natural to conclude, that 
 whatever frightful appearances might be seen in the 
 world, if the cloven foot did not also appear, we had 
 no occasion to look for the Devil, or so much as to 
 think of him, much less to apprehend he was so near 
 us; and as this might be a mistake, and that the Devil 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 217 
 
 might be there while we thought ourselves so secure, 
 it might on many occasions be a mistake of very ill 
 consequence ; and in particular, as it would give the 
 Devil room to act in the dark, and not to be discov- 
 ered, where it might be most needful to know him. 
 
 From this short hint, thus repeated, I draw a new 
 thesis; namely, that devil is most dangerous that has 
 no cloven foot ; or, if you will have it in words more 
 to the common understanding, the Devil seems to be 
 most dangerous when he goes without his cloven foot 
 
 And here a learned speculation effers itself to our 
 debate, and which indeed I ought to call a council of 
 casuists, and men learned in the Devil's politics, to 
 determine : 
 
 Whether is most hurtful to the world, the Devil 
 walking about without his cloven foot, or the cloven 
 foot walking about without the Devil ? 
 
 It is indeed a nice and difficult question, and merits 
 to be well inquired into; for which reason, and divers 
 others, I have referred it to be treated with some 
 decency, and as a dispute of dignity, sufficient to take 
 up a chapter by itself. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Whether is most hurtful to the world, the Devil walk- 
 ing about without his cloven foot, or the cloven foot 
 walking about without the Devil ? 
 
 IN discussing this most critical distinction of Satan's 
 private motions, I must, as the pulpit gentlemen direct 
 us, explain the text, and let you know what I mean 
 by several dark expressions in it, that 1 may not be 
 understood to talk (as the Devil walks) in the dark. 
 
 1. As to the Devil's walking about. 
 
 2. His walking without his cloven foot. 
 
 3. The cloven foot walking about without the 
 Devil. 
 
 Now as I study brevity, and yet would be under- 
 stood too, you may please to understand me as I 
 understand myself; thus : 
 19 
 
218 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 1. That I must be allowed to suppose the Devil 
 really has an intercourse in, and through, and about 
 this globe, with egress and regress, for the carrying 
 on- his special affairs, when, how, and where, to his 
 majesty, in his great wisdom, it shall seem meet; that 
 sometimes he appears and becomes visible, and that, 
 like a mastiff without his clog, he does not always 
 carry his cloven foot with him. This will necessarily 
 bring me to some debate upon the most important 
 question of apparitions, hauntings, walking, &c. y 
 whether of Satan in human shape, or of human crea- 
 tures in the Devil's shape, or in any other manner 
 whatsoever. 
 
 2. I must also be allowed to tell you, that Satan has 
 a great deal of wrong done him by the general embrac- 
 ing vulgar errors, and that there is a cloven foot often- 
 times without a devil ; or, in short, that Satan is not 
 guilty of all the simple things, no, or of all the wicked 
 things we charge him with. 
 
 These two heads well settled will fully explain the 
 title of this chapter, answer the query mentioned in it, 
 and at the same time correspond very well with, and 
 give us a farther prospect into, the main and original 
 design of this work ; namely, the history of the Devil. 
 We are so fond of, and pleased with, the general notion 
 of seeing the Devil, that I am loth to disoblige my 
 readers so much as the calling in question his visibil- 
 ity would do. Nor is it my business, any more than 
 it is his, to undeceive them, where the belief is so 
 agreeable to them; especially, since, upon the whole, 
 it is not one farthing matter, either on one side or on 
 the other, whether it be so or no, or whether the truth 
 of fact be ever discovered or not. 
 
 Certain it is, whether we see him or no, here he is, 
 and I make no doubt but he is looking on while I am 
 writing this part of his story, whether behind me, or 
 at my elbow, or over my shoulder, is not material to 
 me, nor have I once turned my head about to see 
 whether he is there or no ; for if he be not in the inside, 
 I have so mean an opinion of all his extravasated 
 powers, that it seems of very little consequence to me 
 what shape he takes up, or in what posture he 
 appears ; nor indeed can I find in all my inquiry, that 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 219 
 
 ever the Devil appeared (qim devil) in any of the most 
 dangerous or important of his designs in the world ; 
 the most of his projects, especially of the significant 
 part of them, having been carried on another way. 
 
 However, as I am satisfied nobody will be pleased 
 if I should dispute the reality of his appearance, and 
 the world runs away with it as a received point, and 
 that admits no dispute, I shall most readily grant the 
 general, and give you some account of the particulars. 
 
 History is fruitful of particulars, whether invention 
 has supplied them or not, I will not say, where the 
 Devil is brought upon the stage in plain and undeni- 
 able apparition. The story of Samuel being raised by 
 the witch of Endor, I shall leave quite out of my list, 
 because there are so many scruples and objections 
 against that story ; and as I shall not dispute with the 
 scripture, so, on the other hand, I have so much defer- 
 ence for the dignity of the Devil, as not to determine 
 rashly how far it may be in the power of every old 
 (witch) woman, to call him up whenever she pleases, 
 and that he must come, whatever the pretence is, or 
 whatever business of consequence he may be engaged 
 in, as often as it is needful for her to paw-wa for half 
 a crown, or perhaps less than half the money. 
 
 Nor will I undertake to tell you, till I have talked 
 farther with him about it, how far the Devil is con- 
 cerned to discover frauds, detect murders, reveal 
 secrets, and especially to tell where any money is hid, 
 and show folks where to find it ; it is an odd thing 
 that Satan should think it of consequence to come and 
 tell us where such a miser hid a strong box, or where 
 such an old woman buried a pot full of money ; the 
 value of all which is perhaps but a trifle, when at the 
 same time he lets so many veins of gold, so many un- 
 exhausted mines, nay, mountains of silver, as, we 
 may depend upon it, are hid in the bowels of the 
 earth, and which it would be so much to the good of 
 whole nations to discover, lie still there, and never say 
 one word of them to anybody. Besides, how does the 
 Devil's doing things so foreign to himself, and so out 
 of his way, agree with the rest of his character; 
 namely, showing a kind of a friendly disposition to 
 mankind, or doing beneficent things ? This is so 
 
220 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 beneath Satan's quality, and looks so little, that 1 
 scarce know what to say to it ; but that which is still 
 more pungent in the case is, these things are so out of 
 his road, and so foreign to his calling, that it shocks 
 our faith in them, and seems to clash with all the just 
 notions we have of him. and of his business in the 
 world. The like is to be said of those little merry 
 turns we bring him in acting with us, and upon us, 
 upon trifling and simple occasions, such as tumbling 
 chairs and stools about the house, setting pots and ves- 
 sels bottom upward, tossing the glass and crockery 
 ware about, without breaking ; and such like mean 
 foolish things, beneath the dignity of the Devil, who, 
 in my opinion, is rather employed in setting the world 
 with the bottom upward, tumbling kings and crowns 
 about, and dashing the nations one against another ; 
 raising tempests and storms, whether at sea or on 
 shore ; and, in a word, doing capital mischiefs suitable 
 to his nature, and agreeable to his name, Devil ; and 
 suited to that circumstance of his condition, which I 
 have fully represented in the primitive part of his 
 exiled state. 
 
 But to bring in the Devil playing at push-pin with 
 the world, or like Domitian catching flies ; that is to 
 say, doing nothing to the purpose ; this is not only- 
 deluding ourselves, but putting a slur upon the Devil 
 himself; and I say, I shall not dishonor Satan so 
 much as to suppose anything in it. However, as I 
 must have a care too how I take away the proper 
 materials of winter evening frippery, and leave the 
 good wives nothing of the Devil to fright the children 
 with, I shall carry the weighty point no farther. No 
 doubt the Devil and Dr. Faustus were very intimate ; 
 I should rob you of a very significant proverb,^ if I 
 should so much as doubt it; no doubt the Devil 
 showed himself in the glass to that fair lady who 
 looked in it to see where to place her patches ; but 
 then it should follow too, that the Devil is an enemy 
 to the ladies wearing patches ; and that has some 
 difficulties in it which we cannot so easily reconcile; 
 but we must tell the story, and leave out the conse- 
 quences. 
 
 * As great as the Devil and Dr. Faustus. Vulg. Dr. Foster. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 221 
 
 But to come to more remarkable things, and in 
 which the Devil has thought fit to act in a figure 
 more suitable to his dignity, and on occasions con- 
 sistent with himself; take the story of the appearance 
 of Julius Caesar, or the Devil assuming that murdered 
 emperor, to the great Marcus Brutus, who, notwith- 
 standing all the good things said to justify it, was no 
 less than a king-killer and an assassinator, which we 
 in our language call by a very good name, and peculiar 
 to the English tongue, a ruffian. 
 
 The spectre had certainly the appearance of Caesar, 
 with his wounds bleeding afresh, as if he had just re- 
 ceived the fatal blow ; he had reproached him with his 
 ingratitude, with "What, thou, Brutus! Thou, my 
 adopted son !" Now, history seems to agree univer- 
 sally, not only in the story itself, but in the circum- 
 stances of it ; we have only to observe, that the Devil 
 had certainly power to assume, not an human shape 
 only, but the, shape of Julius Caesar in particular. 
 
 Had Brutus been a timorous, conscience-harried, 
 weak-headed wretch, had he been under the horror of 
 the guilt, and terrified with the dangers that were be- 
 fore him at that time, we might suggest that he was 
 over-run with the vapors, that the terrors which were 
 upon his mind disordered him, that his head was deli- 
 rious and prepossessed, and that his fancy only placed 
 Caesar so continually in his eye, that it realized him to 
 his imagination, and he believed he saw him; with 
 many other suggested difficulties to invalidate the 
 story, and render the reality of it doubtful. 
 
 But the contrary, to an extreme, was the case of 
 Brutus; his known character placed him above the 
 power of all hypochondriacs, or fanciful delusions; 
 Brutus was of a true Roman spirit, a bold hero, of an 
 intrepid courage ; one that scorned to fear even the 
 Devil, as the story allows. Besides, he gloried in the 
 action ; there could be no terror of mind upon him ; he 
 valued himself upon it, as done in the service of lib- 
 erty, and the cause of his country; and was so far 
 from being frighted at the Devil in the worst shape, 
 that he spoke first to him, and asked him, What art 
 thou? And when he was cited to see him again at 
 Philippi, answered, with a gallantry that knew no fear, 
 
222 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Well, I will see thee there. Whatever the Devil's 
 business was with Brutus, this is certain, according to 
 all the historians who give us the account of it, that 
 Brutus discovered no fear; he did not, like Saul, at 
 Endor, fall to the ground in a swoon, 1 Sam. xxviii. 
 20. " Then Saul fell all along upon the earth, and there 
 was no strength in him, and was sore afraid." In a 
 word, I see no room to charge Brutus with being over- 
 run with the hypo, or with vapors, or with fright and 
 terror of mind; but he saw the Devil, that is certain, 
 and with eyes open, his courage not at all daunted, 
 his mind resolute, and with the utmost composure 
 spoke to him, replied to his answer, and defied his 
 summons to death, which indeed he feared not, as 
 appeared afterward. 
 
 I come next to an instance as eminent in history as 
 the other; this was in Charles VI. of France, surnamed 
 the Beloved ; who riding over the forest near Mans, 
 a ghastly frightful fellow (that is to say> ther Devil so 
 clothed in human vizor,) came up to his horse, and 
 taking hold of his bridle, stopped him, with the addition 
 of these words, Stop, king; whither go you ? You are 
 betrayed ! and immediately disappeared. It is true, 
 the king had been distempered in his head before, and 
 so he might have been deceived ; and we might have 
 charged it to the account of a whimsical brain, or the 
 power of his imagination ; but this was in the face of 
 his attendants, several of his great officers, courtiers, 
 and princes of the blood, being with him, who all saw 
 the man, heard the words, and immediately, to their 
 astonishment, lost sight of the spectre, who vanished 
 from them all. 
 
 Two witnesses will convict a murderer, why not a 
 traitor? This must be the old gentleman, emblemati- 
 cally so called, or who must it be? nay, who else could 
 it be? His ugliness is not the case, though ugly as the 
 Devil, is a proverb in his favor ; but vanishing out of 
 sight is an essential to a spirit, and to an evil spirit in 
 our times especially. 
 
 These are some of the Devil's extraordinaries, and 
 it must be confessed they are not the most agreeable to 
 mankind ; for sometimes he takes upon him to disorder 
 his friends very much on these occasions, as in the 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 223 
 
 above case of Charles VI. of France ; the king, they 
 say, was really demented ever after ; that is, as we 
 vulgarly, but not always improperly, express it, he 
 was really frightened out of his wits. Whether the 
 malicious Devil intended it so, or not. is not certain, 
 though it was not so foreign to his particular disposi- 
 tion if he did. 
 
 But where he is more intimate, we are told he ap- 
 pears in a manner less disagreeable, and there he is 
 more properly a familiar spirit, that is, in short, a Devil 
 of their acquaintance. It is true, the ancients under- 
 stand the word, a familiar spirit, to be one of the kinds 
 of possession ; but if it serves our turn as well under 
 the denomination of an intimate devil, or a devil visi- 
 tant, it must be acknowledged to be as near in the 
 literal sense and acceptation of the word, as the other ; 
 nay, it must be allowed it is a very great piece of 
 familiarity in the Devil to make visits, and show none 
 of his disagreeables, not appear formidable, or in the 
 shape of what he is, respectfully withholding his 
 dismal part, in compassion to the infirmities of his 
 friends. 
 
 It is true, Satan may be obliged to make different 
 appearances, as the several circumstances of things 
 call for it; in some cases he makes his public entry, 
 and then he must show himself in his habit of cere- 
 mony ; in other cases he comes upon private business, 
 and then he appears in disguise ; in some public cases 
 he may think fit to be incog, and then he appears 
 dressed a -la-masque ; so they say he appeared at the 
 famous St. Bartholomew wedding at Paris, where he 
 came in dressed up like a trumpeter, danced in his 
 habit, sounded a Levet, and then went out and rung 
 the alarm bell (which was the signal to begin the 
 massacre,) half an hour before the time appointed, 
 lest the king's mind should alter, and his heart fail 
 him. 
 
 If the story be not made upon him (for we should 
 not slander the Devil,) it should seem, he was not 
 thoroughly satisfied in King Charles IX.'s steadiness 
 in his cause ; for the king, it seems, had relaxed a little 
 once before ; and Satan might be afraid he would fall 
 off again, and so prevent the execution. Others say 
 
224 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 the king did relent immediately after the ringing the 
 alarm bell; but that then it was too late, the work 
 was begun, and the rage of blood having been let loose 
 among the people, there was no recalling the order. 
 If the Devil was thus brought to the necessity of a 
 secret management, it must be owned he did it dex- 
 terously ; but I have not authority enough for the 
 story, to charge him with the particulars, so I leave it 
 au croc. 
 
 I have much better vouchers for the story following, 
 which I had so solemnly confirmed by one that lived 
 in the family, that I never doubted the truth of it. 
 There lived, in the parish of St. Bennet Fynk, near 
 the Royal Exchange, an honest poor widow woman, 
 who, her husband being lately dead, took lodgers into 
 her house ; that is, she let out some of her rooms, in 
 order to lessen her own charge of rent ; among the rest, 
 she let her garrets to a working watch-wheel-maker, 
 or one some way concerned in making the movements 
 of watches, and who worked to those shopkeepers who 
 sell watches, as is usual. 
 
 It happened that a man and woman went up, to 
 speak with this movement-maker upon some business 
 which related to his trade ; and when they were near 
 the top of the stairs, the garret door where he usually 
 worked being wide open, they saw the poor man (the- 
 watch maker, or wheel maker,) had hanged himself 
 upon a beam which was left open in the room a little 
 lower than the plaster, or ceiling. Surprised at the 
 sight, the woman stopped, and cried out to the man, who 
 was behind her on the stairs, that he should run up, 
 and cut the poor creature down. 
 
 At that very moment comes a man hastily from 
 another part of the room which they upon the stairs 
 could not see, bringing a joint stool in his hand, as if 
 in great haste, and sets it down just by the wretch that 
 was hanged, and, getting up as hastily upon it, pulls 
 a knife out of his pocket, and, taking hold of the rope 
 with one of his hands, beckoned to the woman and 
 the man behind her with his head, as if to stop, and 
 not come up, showing them the knife in his other 
 hand, as if he was just going to cut the poor man 
 down. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 225 
 
 Upon this, the woman stopped a while, but the man 
 who stood on the joint-stool continued with his hand 
 and knife as if fumbling at the knot, but did not yet 
 cut the man down ; at which the woman cried out 
 again, and the man behind her called to her, " Go up," 
 says he, " and help the man upon the stool ! " suppos- 
 ing something hindered. But the man upon the stool 
 made signs to them again to be quiet, and not come 
 on, as if saying, I shall do it immediately ; then he 
 made two strokes with his knife, as if cutting the rope, 
 and then stopped again ; and still the poor man was 
 hanging, and, consequently, dying. Upon this, the 
 woman on the stairs cried out to him, "What ails you? 
 Why don't you cut the poor man down?" And the 
 man behind her, having no more patience, thrusts her 
 by, and said to her, " Let me come, I'll warrant you 
 I'll doit;" and with that runs up and forward into 
 the room to the man ; but when he came there, behold, 
 the poor man was there hanging ; but no man with a 
 knife, or joint-stool, or any such thing to be seen ; all 
 that was spectre and delusion, in order, no doubt, to 
 let the poor creature that had hanged himself perish 
 and expire. 
 
 The man was so frighted and surprised, that with 
 all the courage he had before, he dropped on the floor 
 as one dead ; and the woman at last was fain to cut 
 the poor man down with a pair of scissors, and had 
 much to do to effect it. 
 
 As I have no room to doubt the truth of this story, 
 which I had from persons on whose honesty I could 
 depend, so I think it needs very little trouble to con- 
 vince us who the man upon the stool must be, and that 
 it was the Devil who placed himself there, in order to 
 finish the murder of the man, whom he had, devil-like, 
 tempted before, and prevailed with to be his own exe- 
 cutioner. Besides, it corresponds so well with the 
 Devil's nature, and with his business; namely, that 
 of a murderer ; that I never questioned it ; nor can I 
 think we wrong the Devil at all to charge him with it. 
 
 N. B. I cannot be positive in the remaining part of 
 this story; namely, whether the man was cut down 
 soon enough to be recovered, or whether the Devil 
 carried his point, and kept off the man and woman till 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 it was too late ; but be it which it will, it is plain ha 
 did his devilish endeavor, and stayed till he was forced 
 to abscond again. 
 
 We have many solid tales well attested, as well in 
 history as in the reports of honest people, who could 
 not be deceived, intimating the Devil's personal ap- 
 pearance, some in one place, some in another ; as also 
 sometimes in one habit or dress, and sometimes in an- 
 other ; and it is to be observed, that in none of those 
 which are most like to be real, and in which there is 
 least of fancy and vapor, you have any mention of 
 the cloven foot ; which rather seems to be a mere in- 
 vention of men, (and perhaps chiefly of those who had 
 a cloven understanding, I mean a shallow kind of 
 craft, the effect of an empty and simple head,) think- 
 ing by such a well-meant, though weak fraud, to rep- 
 resent the Devil to the old women and children of the 
 age, with some addition suitable to the weakness of 
 their intellects, and suited to making them afraid of 
 him. 
 
 I have another account of a person who travelled 
 upwards of four years with the Devil in his company, 
 and conversed most intimately with him all the while ; 
 nay, if I may believe the story, he knew most part of 
 the time that he was the Devil, and yet conversed with 
 him, and that very profitably ; for he performed many 
 very useful services for him, and constantly preserved 
 him from the danger of wolves and wild beasts, which 
 the country he travelled through was intolerably full 
 of. Where, by the way, you are to understand, that 
 the wolves and bears in those countries knew the De- 
 vil, whatever disguise he went in ; or that the Devil 
 has some way to fright bears, and such creatures, 
 more than we know of. Nor could this devil ever be 
 prevailed upon to hurt him, or any of his company. 
 This account has an innumerable series of diverting 
 incidents attending it ; but they are equal to all the rest 
 in bulk, and therefore too long for this book. 
 
 I find too upon some more ordinary occasions the 
 Devil has appeared to several people at their call. 
 This indeed shows abundance of good humor in him, 
 considering him as a devil, and that he was mighty 
 complaisant. Nay, some, they tell us, have a power 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 227 
 
 to raise the devil whenever they think fit ; this I can- 
 not bring the Devil to a level with, unless I should 
 allow him to be se?wts servorum, as another devil in 
 disguise calls himself; subjected to every old wizard's 
 call ; or that he is under a necessity of appearing on 
 such or such particular occasions, whoever it is that 
 calls him ; which would bring the Devil's circumstances 
 to a pitch of slavery which I see no reason to believe 
 of them. 
 
 Here also I must take notice again, that though I say 
 the Devil, when I speak of all these apparitions, whe- 
 ther of a greater or lesser kind, yet I am not obliged to 
 suppose Satan himself in person is concerned to show 
 himself; but that some of his agents, deputies, and 
 servants, are sent to that purpose, and directed what 
 disguise of flesh and blood to put on, as may be suita- 
 ble to the occasion. 
 
 This seems to be the only way to reconcile all those 
 simple and ridiculous appearances which not Satan, 
 but his emissaries (which we old women call imps,) 
 sometimes make, and the mean and sorry employment 
 they are put to. Thus fame tells us of a certain witch 
 of quality, who called the Devil once to carry her over 
 a brook where the water was swelled with an hasty 
 rain, and lashed him soundly with her whip for letting 
 her ladyship fall into the water before she was quite 
 over. Thus also, as fame tells us, she set the Devil 
 to work, and made him build Crowland Abbey, where 
 there was no foundation to be found, only for disturb- 
 ing the workmen a little who were first set about it. 
 So it seems another laborious devil was obliged to dig 
 the great ditch cross the country from the Fen coun- 
 try to the edge of Suffolk and Essex ; which however 
 he has preserved the reputation of. and where it cross- 
 es New Market Heath, it is called Devil's Ditch to this 
 day. 
 
 Another piece of punishment no doubt it was, when 
 the Devil was obliged to bring the stones out of Wales 
 into Wiltshire, to build Stone-henge. How this was 
 ordered in those days, when it seems they kept Satan to 
 hard labor, I know not; I believe it must be registered 
 among the ancient pieces of art which are lost in the 
 world, such as melting of stone, painting of glass, &c. 
 
228 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Certainly they had the Devil under correction in those 
 days ; that is to say, those lesser sorts of devils ; but 
 I cannot think that the muckle thief Devil, as they 
 call him in the north, the grand signor Devil of all, was 
 ever reduced to discipline. What devil it was that 
 Dunstan took by the nose with his red-hot tongs, I 
 have not yet examined antiquity enough to be certain 
 of, any more than I can what devil it was that St. 
 Francis played so many warm tricks with, and made 
 him run away from him so often. However, this I 
 take upon me to say, in the Devil's behalf, that it 
 could not be our Satan, the arch-devil of all devils, of 
 whom I have been talking so long. 
 
 Nor is it unworthy the occasion to take notice, that 
 we really wrong the Devil, and speak of him very 
 much to his disadvantage, when we say of such a 
 great lord, or of such a lady of quality, "I think the 
 Devil is in your grace." No, no, Satan has other 
 business ; he very rarely possesses fools : besides, 
 some are so far from having the Devil in them, that 
 they are really transmigrated into the very essence of 
 the Devil themselves ; and others again not transmi- 
 grated, or assimilated, but in deed, and in truth, show 
 us that they are or have mere native devils in every 
 part and parcel of them ; and that the rest is only 
 masque and disguise. Thus, if rage, envy, pride and 
 revenge, can constitute the parts of a devil, why should 
 not a lady of such quality, in whom all those extra- 
 ordinaries abound, have a right to the title of being a 
 devil, really and substantially, and to all intents and 
 purposes, in the most perfect and absolute sense, 
 according to the most exquisite descriptions of devils 
 already given by me, or anybody else ? And even 
 just as Joan of Arc, or Joan, Queen of Naples, were ; 
 who were both sent home to their native country, as 
 soon as it was discovered that they were real devils; 
 and that Satan acknowledged them in that quality. 
 
 It is true, in former times, Satan dealt much in old 
 women, and those, as I have observed already, very 
 ugly, Ugly as a witch, Black as a witch, I look like a 
 witch, all proverbial speeches, and which testified 
 what tools it was Satan generally worked with ; and 
 these old spectres, they tell us, used to ride through 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 229 
 
 the air in the night, and upon broomsticks too, all 
 mighty homely doings ! Some say they used to go to 
 visit their grand signor the Devil, in those noctural 
 perambulations : but be that as it will, it is certain 
 the Devil has changed hands, and that now he walks 
 about the world clothed in beauty, covered with the 
 charms of the lovely, and he fails not to disguise 
 himself effectually by it; for who would think a beau- 
 tiful lady could be a masque to the Devil ? and that a 
 fine face, a divine shape, an heavenly aspect, should 
 bring the Devil in her company, nay. should be her- 
 self an apparition, a mere devil ? 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of the cloven foot walking about the world without the 
 Devil ; namely, of witches making bargains for the 
 Devil ; and particularly of selling the soul to the 
 Devil. 
 
 I HAVE dwelt long upon the Devil in masque, as he 
 goes about the world incog., and especially without 
 his cloven foot ; and have touched upon some of his 
 disguises in the management of his interest in the 
 world. I must say some of his disguises only ; for 
 who can give a full account of all his tricks and arts 
 in so narrow a compass as I am prescribed to? 
 
 But, as I said, that every devil has not a cloven 
 foot, so I must add now for the present purpose, that 
 every cloven foot is not the Devil. 
 
 Not but that wherever I should meet the cloven 
 hoof, I should expect that the Devil was not far off, 
 and should be apt to raise the posse against him, to 
 apprehend him ; yet it may happen otherwise, that is 
 certain ; every coin has its counterfeit, every art its 
 pretender, every whore her admirer, every error its 
 patron, and every day has its devil. 
 
 I have had some thought of making a full and com- 
 plete discovery here of that great doubt which has so 
 long puzzled the world ; namely, whether there is any 
 such thing as secret making bargains with the Devil : 
 20 
 
230 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 and the first positive assurance I can give you in the 
 case, is, that if there is not, it is not his fault ; it is not 
 for want of his endeavor, it is plain, if you will pardon 
 me for taking so mean a step, as that of quoting scrip- 
 ture; I say, it is evident he would fain have made a 
 contract with our Saviour, and he bid boldly, (give 
 him his due ;) namely, all the kingdoms of the world 
 for one bend of his knee. Impudent seraph! To 
 think thy Lord should pay thee homage ! How 
 many would agree with him here for a less price ! 
 They say Oliver Cromwell struck a bargain with him, 
 and that he gave Oliver the protectorship, but would 
 not let him call himself king ; which stuck so close to 
 that Furioso, that the mortification spread into his 
 soul; and, it is said, he died of a gangrene in the 
 spleen. But take notice, and do Oliver justice ; I do 
 not vouch the story, neither does the Bishop say one 
 word of it. 
 
 Fame used to say, that the old famous Duke of 
 Luxemburg made a magic compact of this kind ; nay, 
 I have heard many an (old woman) officer of the 
 troops, who never cared to see his face, declare that he 
 carried the Devil at his back. I remember a certain 
 author of a newspaper, in London, was once taken up, 
 and they say it cost him 50, for printing, in his news, 
 that Luxemburg was hump-backed. Now, if I have 
 resolved the difficulty, namely, that he was not 
 humped, only carried the Devil at his back ; I think 
 the poor man should have his 50 again, or I should 
 have it for the discovery. 
 
 I confess, I do not well understand this compacting 
 with such a fellow as can neither write nor read; nor 
 do I know who is the scrivener between them, or how 
 the indenture can be executed; but that which is 
 worse than all the rest is, that, in the first place, the 
 Devil never keeps articles : he will contract, perhaps, 
 and they say he is mighty forward to make con- 
 ditions; but who shall bind him to the performance, 
 and where is the penalty if he fails? If we agree 
 with him, he will be apt enough to claim his bargain, 
 and demand payment ; nay, perhaps before it is due ; 
 but who shall make him stand to his ? 
 
 Besides, he is a knave in his dealing ; for he really 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 231 
 
 promises what he cannot perform ; witness his impu- 
 dent proposal to our Lord, mentioned above, " All these 
 kingdoms will I give thee!" Lying spirit! Why 
 they were none of thine to give, no, not one of them ; 
 for the earth is the Lord's and the kingdoms thereof; 
 nor were they in his power any more than in his 
 right. So (I have heard that) some poor dismal crea- 
 tures have sold themselves to the Devil for a sum of 
 money, for so much cash ; and yet, even in that case, 
 when the day of payment came, I never heard that he 
 brought the money, or paid the purchase ; so that he 
 is a scoundrel in his treaties ; for you shall trust for 
 your bargain, but not be able to get your money ; and 
 yet, for your part, he comes for you to an hour : of 
 which by itself. 
 
 In a word, let me caution you all, when you trade 
 with the Devil, either get the price, or quit the bar- 
 gain ; the Devil is a cunning shaver, he will wriggle 
 himself out of the performance, on his side, if possible, 
 and yet expect you should be punctual on your side. 
 They tell you of a poor fellow in Herefordshire, that 
 offered to sell his soul to him for a cow ; and though 
 the Devil promised, and, as they say, signed the writ- 
 ings, yet the poor countryman could never get the cow 
 of- him, but still, as he brought a cow to him, some- 
 body or other came, and challenged it, proving that it 
 was lost, or stolen from them; so that the man got 
 nothing but the name of a cow-stealer, and was, at 
 last, carried to Hereford gaol, and condemned to be 
 hanged, for stealing two cows, one after the other. 
 The wicked fellow was then in the greatest distress 
 imaginable ; he summoned his devil to help him out, 
 but he failed him, as the Devil always will ; he really 
 had not stolen the cows, but they were found in his 
 possession, and he could give no account how he came 
 by them ; at last he was driven to confess the truth, 
 told the horrid bargain he had made, and how the 
 Devil often promised him a cow, but never gave him 
 one, except that several times, in the morning early, 
 he found a cow put into his yard, but it always proved 
 to belong to some of his neighbors. Whether the man 
 was hanged, or no, the story does not relate; but this 
 part is to my purpose ; that they that make bargains 
 
232 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 with the Devil, ought to make him give security for 
 the performance of covenants ; and whom the Devil 
 would get to be bound for him, I cannot tell ; they 
 must look to that who make the bargain. Besides, if 
 he had not had a mind to cheat or baffle the poor man, 
 what need he have taken a cow so near home? If he 
 had such and such powers as we talk of, and as fancy 
 and fable furnish for him, could not he have carried a 
 cow in the air, upon a broomstick, as well as an old 
 woman ? Could he not have stolen a cow for him in 
 Lincolnshire, and set it down in Herefordshire, and so 
 have performed his bargain, saved his credit, and kept 
 the poor man out of trouble ? So that if the story is 
 true, as I really believe it is, either it is not the Devil that 
 mak^s those bargains, or the Devil has not such power 
 as we bestow on him, except on special occasions, he 
 gets a permit, and is bid go, as in the case of Job, the 
 Gadarene hogs, and the like. 
 
 We have another example of a man's selling himself 
 to the Devil, that is very remarkable, and that is in 
 the Bible too ; and even in that, I do not find what the 
 Devil did for him, in payment of the purchase price. 
 The person selling was Ahab, of whom the text says 
 expressly, " There was none like him, who did sell 
 himself to work wickedness, in the sight of the Lord," 
 1 Kings xxi. 20 and 25. I think it might have been 
 rendered, if not translated, in spite of the Lord or in 
 defiance of God ; for certainly that is the meaning of 
 it. And now, allowing me to preach a little upon 
 this text, my sermon shall be very short. Ahab sold 
 himself; whom did he sell himself to? I answer that 
 question by a question ; Who would buy him? Who, 
 as we say, would give anything for him? And the 
 answer to that is plain also ; you may judge of the 
 purchaser by the work he was to do; he that buys a 
 slave in the market, buys him to work for him-, and to 
 do such business as he has for him to do. Ahab was 
 bought to work wickedness, and who would buy him 
 for that but the Devil ? 
 
 I think there is no room to doubt but Ahab sold 
 himself to the Devil ; the text is plain, that he sold 
 himself, and the work he was sold to do points out 
 the master that bought him; what price he agreed 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 233 
 
 with the Devil for, that indeed the text is silent in ; 
 so we may let it alone, nor is it much to our purpose, 
 unless it be to inquire whether the Devil stood to his 
 bargain, or not, and whether he paid the money accord- 
 ing to agreement, or cheated him, as he did the farmer 
 at Hereford. 
 
 This buying and selling between the Devil and us, 
 is, I must confess, an odd kind of stock-jobbing; and 
 indeed the Devil may be said to sell the bear-skin, 
 whatever he buys ; but the strangest part is when he 
 comes to demand the transfer ; for, as I hinted before, 
 whether he performs, or no, he expects his bargain to 
 a tittle. There is indeed some difficulty in resolving 
 how, and in what manner, payment is made. The 
 stories we meet with in our chimney-corner histories, 
 and which are so many ways made use of to make the 
 Devil frightful to us, and our heirs forever, are gen- 
 erally so foolish and ridiculous, as, if true, or not true, 
 they have nothing material in them, are of no signifi- 
 cation ; or else so impossible in their nature that they 
 make no impression upon anybody above twelve years 
 old, and under seventy; or else are so tragical that 
 antiquity has fabled them down to our taste, that we 
 might be able to hear them, and repeat them, with less 
 horror than is due to them. 
 
 This variety has taken off our relish of the thing in 
 general, and made the trade of soul-selling, like our 
 late more eminent bubbles, be taken to be a cheat, and 
 to have a little in it. 
 
 However, to speak a little more gravely to it, I can- 
 not say but that, since by the two eminent instances of 
 it above, in Ahab, and in Christ himself, the fact is 
 evidently ascertained ; and that the Devil has at- 
 tempted to make such a bargain on one, and actually 
 did make it with the other ; the possibility of it is not 
 to be disputed ; but then I must explain the manner of 
 it a little, and bring it down nearer to our understand- 
 ing, that it may be more intelligible than it is ; for as 
 for this selling of the soul, and making a bargain to 
 give the Devil possession by livery and seisin, on 
 the day appointed, that I cannot come into, by any 
 means : no nor into the other part, namely, of the 
 Devil coming to claim his bargain, and to demand the 
 20* 
 
234 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 soul, according to agreement, and, upon default of a fair 
 delivery, taking it away by violence, case and all, of 
 which we have many historical relations, pretty cur- 
 rent among us. ; some of which, for aught 1 know, we 
 might have hoped had been true, if we had not been 
 sure they were false ; and others we had reason to 
 fear were false, because it was impossible they should 
 be true. 
 
 The bargains of this kind, according to the best ac- 
 counts we have of them, used to consist of two main 
 articles, according to the ordinary stipulations in all 
 covenants ; namely, 
 
 1. Something to be performed on the Devil's part, 
 buying. 
 
 2. Something to be performed on the man's part, 
 selling. 
 
 1. The Devil's part. This was generally some poor 
 trifle ; for the Devil generally bought good penny- 
 worths, and oftentimes, like a complete sharper, agreed 
 to give what he was not able to procure ; that is to say, 
 would bargain for a price he could not pay, as in the 
 case of the Hereford man and the cow ; for example, 
 1. Long life. This, though the deluded chapman has 
 often had folly enough to contract for, the Devil never 
 had power to make good ; and we have a famous 
 story, how true I know not, of a wretch that sold him- 
 self to the Devil, on condition he, Satan, should assure 
 him, 1. That he should never want victuals ; 2. That 
 he should never be cold ; 3. That he should always 
 come to him when he called him; and 4. That he 
 should let him live one-and-twenty years, and then 
 Satan was at liberty to have him ; that is, I suppose, 
 to take him wherever he could find him. 
 
 It seems, the fellow's desire to be assured of twenty- 
 one years' life, was chiefly, that, during that time, he 
 might be as wicked as he would, and should yet be 
 sure not to be hanged ; nay, to be free from all pun- 
 ishment. Upon this foot, it is said, he commenced 
 rogue, and committed a great many robberies, and 
 other villanous things. Now, it seems the Devil was 
 pretty true to his bargain, in several of those things ; 
 particularly, that two or three times, when the fellow- 
 was taken up for petty crimes, and called for his old 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 235 
 
 friend, he came and frighted the constables so, that 
 they let the offender get away from them. But at 
 length, having done some capital crime, a set of con- 
 stables, or such-like officers, seized upon him, who 
 were not to be frighted with the Devil, in what shape 
 soever he appeared ; so that they carried him off, and 
 he was committed to Newgate, or some other prison as 
 effectual. 
 
 Nor could Satan, with all his skill, unlock his fetters, 
 much less the prison doors ; but he was tried, con- 
 victed, and executed. The fellow, in his extremity, 
 they say, expostulated with the Devil for his bargain, 
 the term of twenty-one years, it seems, not being ex- 
 pired. But the Devil, it is said, shuffled with him, 
 told him a good while he would get him out, bid him 
 have patience, and stay a little; and thus led him on, 
 till he came, as it were, within sight of the gal- 
 lows, that is to say, within a day or two of his ex- 
 ecution; when the Devil cavilled upon his bargain, 
 told him, he agreed to let him live twenty-one years, 
 and he had not hindered him, but that he did not 
 covenant to cause him to live that time ; that there 
 was a great deal of difference between doing and suf- 
 fering ; that he was to surfer him to live, and that he 
 did; but he could not make him live, when he had 
 brought himself to the gallows. 
 
 Whether this story were true or not, for you must 
 not expect we historians should answer for the dis- 
 course between the Devil and his chaps, because we 
 were not privy to the bargain ; I say, whether it was 
 true or not, the inference is to our purpose several 
 ways. 
 
 1. It confirms what I have said of the knavery of 
 the Devil, in his dealings ; and that, when he has stock- 
 jobbed with us, on the best conditions he can get, he 
 very seldom performs his bargain. 
 
 2. It confirms what I have likewise said, that the 
 Devil's power is limited ; with this addition, that he 
 not only cannot destroy the life of man, but that he 
 cannot preserve it ; in short, he can neither prevent, 
 nor bring on, our destruction. 
 
 I may be allowed, I hope, for the sake of the present 
 discourse, to suppose, that the Devil would have been 
 so just to this wicked, though foolish creature, as to 
 
236 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 have saved him from the gallows if he could; but it 
 seems, he at last acknowledged that it was not in his 
 power ; nay, he could not keep him from being taken 
 and carried to prison, after he was gotten into trie 
 hands of a bold fellow or two, that were not to be 
 scared with his bluster, as some foolish creatures had 
 been before. 
 
 And how simple, how weak, how unlike anything 
 of an angelic nature, was it. to attempt to save the 
 poor wretch, only by little noises, and sham appear- 
 ances, putting out the candles, rushing and jostling in 
 the dark, and the like ! If the Devil was that mighty 
 seraph, which we have heard of, if he is a god of this 
 world, a prince of the air, a spirit able to destroy 
 cities, and make havoc in the world ; if he can raise 
 tempests and storms, throw fire about the world, and 
 do wonderful things, as an unchained devil no doubt 
 could do; what need all this frippery? and what 
 need he try so many ridiculous ways, by the empti- 
 ness, nay, the silly nonsensical manner, of which, he 
 shows that he is able to do no better, and that his 
 power is extinguished? In a word, he would certainly 
 act otherwise, if he could. Sed caret pedibus, he wants 
 power. 
 
 How weak a thing is it then, for any man to expect 
 performance from the Devil ? If he has not power to 
 do mischief, which is his element, his very nature, 
 and, on many accounts, is the very sum of his desires; 
 how should he have power to do good ? how power to 
 deliver from danger, or from death ? which deliver- 
 ance would be in itself a good, and we know it is not 
 in his nature to do good to, or for, any man. 
 
 In a word, the Devil is strangely impudent, to think 
 that any man should depend upon him, for the per- 
 formance of an agreement of any kind whatever, when 
 he knows himself, that he is not able, if he was honest 
 enough, to be as good as his word. 
 
 Come we, next, to his expecting our performance to 
 him ; though he is not so just to us, yet, it seems, he 
 never fails to come and demand payment of us, at the 
 very day appointed. He was but a weak trader in 
 things of this nature, who, having sold his soul to the 
 Devil, so our old women's tales call the thing, and 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 237 
 
 when the Devil came to demand his bargain, put it off, 
 as a thing of no force; for that it was done so long 
 ago, he thought he (the Devil) had forgot it. It was 
 a better answer, which, they tell us. a Lutheran divine 
 gave the Devil, in the name of a poor wretch, who had 
 sold himself to the Devil, and who was in a terrible 
 fright about his coming for his bargain, as he might 
 well be indeed, if the Devil has such a power, as 
 really to come and take it by force. The story (if you 
 can hear a serious one) is this. 
 
 The man was in great horror of mind, and the family 
 feared he would destroy himself; at length they sent 
 for a Lutheran minister, to talk with him, and who, 
 after some labor with him, got out the truth; namely, 
 that he had sold himself to the Devil; and that the 
 time was almost expired, when he expected the Devil 
 would come and fetch him away ; and he was sure he 
 would not fail coming to the time, to a minute. The 
 minister first endeavored to convince him of the horrid 
 crime, and to bring him to a true penitence for that 
 part ; and having, as he thought, made him a sincere 
 penitent, he then began to encourage him ; and partic- 
 ularly desired of him, that when the time was come, 
 that the Devil would fetch him away, he, the minister, 
 should be in the house with him. Accordingly, to 
 make the story short, the time came ; the Devil came ; 
 and the minister was present, when the Devil came ; 
 what shape he was in, the story does not say; the 
 man said he saw him, and cried out; the minister 
 could not see him ; but the man affirming he was in 
 the room, the minister said aloud, " In the name of 
 the living God, Satan, what comest thou here for?" 
 The Devil answered, "I come for my own;" the 
 minister answered, "He is not thy own; for Jesus 
 Christ has redeemed him, and in his name I charge 
 thee to avoid and touch him not ;" at which, says the 
 story, the Devil gave a furious stamp, (with his cloven 
 foot I suppose,) and went away, and was never known 
 to molest him afterward. 
 
 I have heard of another person, that had actually 
 signed a contract with the Devil ; and. upon a fast 
 kept by some protestant or Christian divines, while 
 they were praying for the poor man, the Devil was 
 
238 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 obliged to come, and throw the contract in at the 
 window. 
 
 But I vouch none of these stories ; there may be 
 much in them, and much use made of them, even 
 whether exactly such in fact, as they are related, or 
 no ; the best use I can make of them is this, if any 
 wicked, desperate wretches have made bargain and 
 sale with Satan, their only way is to repent, if they 
 know how, and that before he comes to claim them ; 
 then batter him with his own guns ; play religion 
 against devilism, and, perhaps, they may drive the 
 Devil out of their reach; at least, he will not come at 
 them, which is as well. 
 
 On the other hand, how many stories have we 
 handed about, of the Devil's really coming with a 
 terrible appearance, at the time appointed, and power- 
 fully, or by violence, carrying away those, that have 
 given themselves thus up to him ! nay, and sometimes a 
 piece of the house along with them, as in the famous 
 instance of Sudbury, anno 1662. It seems he comes 
 with rage and fury, upon such occasions, pretending 
 he only comes to take his own, or as if he had leave 
 given him to come and take his goods, as we say, 
 where he could find them, and would strike a terror 
 into all that should oppose him. 
 
 The greatest part of the terror we are usually in, 
 upon this occasion, is from a supposition, that when 
 this hell-fire contract is once made, God allows the 
 Devil to come and take the wicked creature, how, and 
 in what manner, he thinks fit, as being given up to 
 him by his own act and deed ; but. in my opinion, 
 there is no divinity at all in that ; for, as in our law, 
 we punish a felo de se, or self-murderer, because, as 
 the law suggests, he had no right to dismiss his own 
 life ; that he being a subject of the commonwealth, the 
 government claims the ward or custody of him ; and 
 so it was not murder only, but robbery, and is a felony 
 against the state, robbing the king of his liege-man, as 
 it is justly called ; so neither has any man a right to 
 dispose of his soul, which belongs to his Maker in pro- 
 perty, and in right of creation. The man then having 
 no right to sell, Satan has no right to buy ; or, at best, 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 239 
 
 he has made a purchase without a title, and conse- 
 quently has no just claim to the possession. ! 
 
 It is therefore a mistake to say, when any of us 
 have been so mad, to make such a pretended contract 
 with the Devil, that God gives him leave to take it as 
 his due; it is no such thing; the Devil has bought 
 what you had no right to sell; and therefore, as an 
 unlawful oath is to be repented of, and then broken ; 
 so your business is, to repent of the crime, and then 
 tell the Devil you have better considered of it, and 
 that you won't stand to your bargain, for you had no 
 power to sell ; and, if he pretends to violence after that, 
 I am mistaken ; I believe the Devil knows better. 
 
 It is true, our old mothers and nurses have told us 
 other things; but they only told us what their mothers 
 and nurses told them ; and so the tale has been handed 
 down, from one generation of old women to another ; 
 but we have no vouchers for the fact, other than oral 
 tradition, the credit of which, I confess, goes but a 
 very little way with me ; nor do I believe it one jot the 
 more, for all the frightful addenda which they gener- 
 ally join to the tale; for it never wants a great variety 
 of that kind. 
 
 Thus, they tell us, the Devil carried away Dr. 
 Faustus, and took a piece of the wall of his garden 
 along with them. Thus, at Salisbury, the Devil, as 
 it is said, and publicly printed, carried away two fel- 
 lows that had given themselves up to him, and car- 
 ried away the roof of the house with them, and the 
 like ; all which, I believe my share of. Besides, 
 if these stories were really true, they are all against 
 the Devil's true interest ; Satan must be a fool, 
 which is indeed what I never took him to be, in the 
 main ; this would be the way not to increase the num- 
 ber of desperadoes, who should thus put themselves 
 into his hand, but to make himself a terror to them ; 
 and this is one of the most powerful objections I have 
 against the thing ; for the Devil, I say, is no fool ; that 
 must be acknowledged; he knows his own game, and 
 generally plays it sure. 
 
 I might, before 1 quit this point, seriously reflect 
 here, upon our beau monde ; namely, the gay part of 
 mankind; especially those of the times we live in; 
 
240 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 who walk about in a composure and tranquillity inex- 
 pressible, and yet, as we all know, must certainly have 
 all sold themselves to the Devil, ibr the power of act- 
 ing the foolishest things with the greater applause. It 
 is true, to be a fool is the most pleasant life in the 
 world, if the fool has but the particular felicity, which 
 few fools want, namely, to think themselves wise. 
 The learned say, it is the dignity and perfection of 
 fools, that they never fail trusting themselves ; they 
 believe themselves sufficient and able for everything ; 
 and hence, their want or waste of brains is no griev- 
 ance to them, but they hug themselves in the satiety 
 of their own wit. But to bring other people to have 
 the same notion of them, which they have of them- 
 selves, and to have their apish and ridiculous conduct 
 make the same impression on the minds of others, as 
 it does on their own ; this requires a general infatu- 
 ation, and must either be a judgment from heaven, or 
 a mist of hell; nothing but the Devil can make all 
 the men of brains applaud a fool ; and can any man 
 believe, that the Devil will do this for nothing ? No, 
 no, he will be well paid for it ; and I know no other 
 way they have to compound with him, but this of bar- 
 gain and sale. 
 
 It is the same thing with rakes and bullies, as it is 
 with fools and beaux ; and this brings me to the sub- 
 ject of buying and selling itself, and to examine what 
 is understood by it in the world ; what people mean by 
 such and such a man selling himself to the Devil. I 
 know the common acceptation of it is, that they make 
 some capitulation for some indulgence in wickedness, 
 on conditions of safety and impunity, which the Devil 
 promises them ; though, as I said above, he is a bite 
 in that too, for he cannot perform the conditions; how- 
 ever, I say, he promises boldly, and they believe him ; 
 and for this privilege in wickedness, they consent that 
 he shall come and fetch them for his own, at such or 
 such a time. 
 
 This is the state of the case, in the general accepta- 
 tion of it. I do not say it is really so ; nay, it is even 
 an inconsistency in itself; for, one would think, they 
 need not capitulate with the Devil to be so and so, 
 superlatively wicked, and give him such a price for it, 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 241 
 
 seeing, unless we have a wrong notion of him, he is 
 naturally inclined, as well as avowedly willing, to 
 have all men be as superlatively wicked, as possibly 
 they can; must necessarily be always ready to issue 
 out his licenses gratis, as far as his authority will go 
 in the case ; and therefore I do not see why the 
 wretches that deal with him should article with him 
 for a price; but suppose, for argument-sake, that it is 
 so, then the next thing is, some capital crime follows 
 the contract; and then the wretch is forsaken, for then 
 the Devil cannot protect him, as he promised ; so he is 
 trussed up, and, like Coleman at the gallows, he ex- 
 claims, that there is no truth in devils. 
 
 It may be true, however, that, under the powerful 
 guard and protection of the Devil, men do sometimes 
 go a great way in crime, and that perhaps farther in 
 these our days of boasted morals, than was known 
 among our fathers; the only difference that I meet 
 with, between the sons of Belial in former days, and 
 those of our ages, seems to be in the Devil's manage- 
 ment, not in theirs ; the sum of which amounts to this, 
 that Satan seems to act with more cunning, and they 
 with less ; for in the former ages of Satan's dominion, 
 he had much business upon his hands ; all his art and 
 engines, and engineers also, were kept fully employed 
 to wheedle, allure, betray and circumvent people, and 
 draw them into crimes, and they found him, as we 
 may say, a full employment ; I doubt not, he was 
 called the tempter on that very account ; but the case 
 seems quite altered now, the tables are turned ; then 
 the Devil tempted men to sin; but now. in short, they 
 tempt the Devil ; men push into crimes before he 
 pushes them ; they outshoot him in his own bow, out- 
 run him on his own ground, and, as we say of some 
 hot-spurs who ride post, they whip the post-boy ; in a 
 word, the Devil seems to have no business now, but to 
 sit still and look on. 
 
 This, I must confess, seems to intimate some secret 
 compact between the Devil and them ; but then it 
 looks not as if they had contracted with the Devil for 
 leave to sin, but that the Devil had contracted with 
 them, that they should sin so and so, up to such a 
 degree, and that without giving him the trouble of daily 
 21 
 
242 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 solicitation, private management, and artful screwing 
 up their passions, their affections, and their most 
 retired faculties, as he was before obliged to do. 
 
 This also appears more agreeable to the nature of 
 the thing; and as it is a most exquisite part of Satan's 
 cunning, so it is an undoubted testimony of his suc- 
 cess ; if it was not so, he could never bring his king- 
 dom to such a height of absolute power as he has done. 
 This also solves several difficulties in the affair of the 
 world's present way of sinning, which otherwise it 
 would be very hard to understand ; as particularly, 
 how some eminent men of quality among us, whose 
 upper rooms are not extraordinary well furnished in 
 other cases, yet are so very witty in their wickedness, 
 that they gather admirers by hundreds and thousands; 
 who, however heavy, lumpish, slow and backward, 
 even by nature, and in force of constitution, in better 
 things ; yet, in their race devil- wards, they are of a 
 sudden grown nimble, light of foot, and outrun all 
 their neighbors ; fellows that are as empty of sense, as 
 beggars are of honesty, and as far from brains, as a 
 fool is of modesty ; on a sudden you shall find them 
 dip into polemics, study Michael Servetus, Socinus, 
 and the most learned of their disciples ; they shall rea- 
 son against all religion, as strongly as a philosopher; 
 blaspheme with such a keenness of wit, and satirize 
 God and eternity with such a brightness of fancy, as 
 if the soul of a Rochester, or an Hobbes were trans- 
 migrated into them ; in a little length of time more 
 they banter Heaven, burlesque the Trinity, and jest 
 with every sacred thing ; and all so sharp, so ready, 
 and so terribly witty, as if they were born buffoons, 
 and were singled out by nature to be champions for 
 the Devil. 
 
 Whence can all this come ? How is the change 
 wrought? Who but the Devil can inject wit in spite 
 of natural dullness, create brains, fill empty heads, 
 and supply the vacuities in the understanding ? And 
 will Satan do all this for nothing ? No, no, he is too 
 wise for that ; I can never doubt a secret compact, if 
 there is such a thing in nature ; when I see an head 
 where there was no head, sense in posse where there 
 is no sense in esse, wit without brains, and sight 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 243 
 
 without eyes, it is all devil-work. Could G write 
 
 satires, that could neither read Latin, or spell English, 
 like old Sir William Read, who wrote a book of optics, 
 which, when it was printed, he did not know which 
 was the right side uppermost, and which the wrong 1 
 Could this eminent uninformed beau turn atheist, and 
 make wise speeches against that Being, which made 
 him a fool, if the Devil had not solcl him some wit in 
 exchange for that trifle of his, called soul ? Had he 
 not bartered his inside with that son of the morning, 
 to have his tongue tipped with blasphemy, he that 
 knew nothing of a God, but to swear by him, could 
 never have set up for a wit, to burlesque his provi- 
 dence, and ridicule his government of the world. 
 
 But the Devil, as he is god of this world, has one 
 particular advantage, and that is, that when he has 
 work to do, he very seldom wants instruments.; with 
 this circumstance also, that the degeneracy of human 
 nature supplies him ; as the late King of France said 
 of himself, when they told him what a calamity was 
 like to befall his kingdom by the famine. Well, says 
 the king, then I shall not want soldiers. And it was 
 so, want of bread supplied his army with recruits ; so 
 want of grace supplies the Devil with reprobates for 
 his work. 
 
 Another reason why I think the Devil has made 
 more bargains of that kind we speak of, in this age, is, 
 because he seems to have laid by his cloven foot ; all 
 his old emissaries, the tools of his trade, the engineers 
 which he employed in his mines, such as witches, 
 warlocks, magicians, conjurers, astrologers, and all the 
 hellish train or rabble of human devils, who did his 
 drudgery in former days, seem to be out of work ; I 
 shall give you a fuller enumeration of them in the next 
 chapter. 
 
 These, I say, seem to be laid aside ; not that his work 
 is abated, or that his business with mankind, for their 
 delusion and destruction, is not the same, or perhaps 
 more than ever ; but the Devil seems to have changed 
 hands ; the temper and genius of mankind is altered, 
 and they are not to be taken by fright and horror, as 
 they were then. The figure of those creatures was 
 alwlys dismal and horrible, and that is it which I 
 
244 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 mean by the cloven foot ; but now wit, beauty and 
 gay things, are the sum of his craft ; he manages by 
 the soft and smooth, the fair and the artful, the kind and 
 the cunning; not by the frightful and terrible, the ugly 
 and the odious. 
 
 When the Devil, for weighty dispatches, 
 Wanted messengers cunning and bold, 
 
 He passed by the beautiful faces, 
 And picked out the ugly and old. 
 
 Of these he made warlocks and witches, 
 
 To run of his errands by night, 
 Till the over-wrought hag-ridden wretches 
 
 Were as fit as the Devil to fright. 
 
 But whoever has been his adviser, 
 
 As his kingdom increases in growth, 
 He now takes his measures much wiser, 
 
 And traffics with beauty and youth. 
 
 * 
 
 Disguised in the wanton and witty, 
 
 He haunts both the church and the court ; 
 
 And sometimes he visits the city, 
 Where all the best Christians resort. 
 
 Thus dressed up in full masquerade, 
 He the bolder can range up and down ; 
 
 For he better can drive on his trade 
 In any one's name, than his own. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of the tools the Devil works with, namely, Witches, 
 Wizards or Warlocks, Conjurers, Magicians, Di- 
 viners, Astrologers, Interpreters of Dreams, Tellers 
 of Fortunes, and, above all the rest, his particular 
 modern Privy Counsellors, called Wits and Fools. 
 
 THOUGH, as I have advanced in the foregoing chap- 
 ter, the Devil has very much changed hands in his 
 modern management of the world, and that instead of 
 the rabble, and long train of implements reckoned up 
 above, he now walks about in beans, beauties, wits, 
 and fools ; yet I must not omit to tell you that hetfias 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 245 
 
 not dismissed his former regiments, but like officers in 
 time of peace, he keeps them all in half-pay ; or like 
 extraordinary men at the custom-house, they are kept 
 at a call, to be ready to fill up vacancies, or to em- 
 ploy when he is more than ordinarily full of business ; 
 and therefore it may not be amiss to give some brief 
 account of them from Satan's own memoirs, their per- 
 formance being no inconsiderable part of his history. 
 
 Nor will it be an unprofitable digression, to go back 
 a little to the primitive institution of all these orders, 
 for they are very ancient ; and I assure you, it requires 
 great knowledge of antiquity, to give a particular of 
 their original. I shall be very brief in it. 
 
 In order then to this inquiry, you must know that it 
 was not for want of servants, that Satan took this sort 
 of people into his pay; he has, as I have observed in 
 its place, millions of diligent devils at his call, what- 
 ever business, and however difficult, he had for them 
 to do; but, as I have said above, that our modern 
 people are forwarder than even the Devil himself can 
 desire them to be ; and that they come before they 
 are called, run before they are sent, and crowd them- 
 selves into his service; so it seems it was in those 
 early days, when the world was one universal mon- 
 archy, under his dominion, as I have at large described 
 in its place. 
 
 In those days the wickedness of the world keeping 
 a just pace with their ignorance, this inferior sort of 
 low-priced instruments did the Devil's work mighty 
 well ; they drudged on his black-art so laboriously, 
 and with such good success, that he found it was 
 better to employ them as tools, to delude and draw 
 in mankind, than to send his invisible implements 
 about, and oblige them to take such shapes and dresses 
 as were necessary upon every trifling occasion which, 
 perhaps, was more cost than worship, more pains than 
 Pay- 
 Having then a set of these volunteers in his ser- 
 vice, the true Devil had nothing to do but to keep an 
 exact correspondence with them, and communicate 
 some needful powers to them to make them be and 
 do^something extraordinary, and give them a repu- 
 tation in their business ; and these, in a word, did a 
 
246 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 great part of, nay, almost all, the Devil's business in 
 the world. 
 
 To this purpose gave he them power, if we may be- 
 lieve old Glanville, Baxter, Hicks, and other learned 
 consulters of oracles, to walk invisible, to fly in the 
 air, ride upon broomsticks, and other wooden gear, 
 to interpret dreams, answer questions, betray secrets, 
 to talk (gibberish) the universal language, to raise 
 storms, swell winds, bring up spirits, disturb the 
 dead, and torment the living, with a thousand other 
 needful tricks to amuse the world, keep themselves 
 in veneration, and carry on the Devil's empire in the 
 world. 
 
 The first nations among whom these infernal prac- 
 tices were found, were Chaldeans ; and that I may do 
 justice in earnest, as well as in jest, it must be allowed 
 that the Chaldeans, or those of them so called, were not 
 conjurers, or magicians, only philosophers and studiers 
 of nature, wise, sober, and studious men, at first, 
 and we have an extraordinary account of them; and, 
 if we may believe some of our best writers of fame. 
 Abraham was himself famous among them for such 
 magic, as Sir Walter Raleigh expresses it, Qui con- 
 templatione creaturarum cognovit Creatorem. 
 
 Now, granting this, it is all to my purpose ; namely, 
 That the Devil drew these wise men in, to search after 
 more knowledge than nature could instruct them in ; 
 and the knowledge of the true God being, at that time, 
 sunk very low, he debauched them all with dreams, 
 apparitions, conjurers, &c., till he ruined the just 
 notions they had, and made devils of them all, like 
 himself. 
 
 The learned Senensis, speaking of this Chaldean kind 
 of learning, gives us an account of five sorts of them. 
 You will pardon me for being so grave as to go this 
 length back. 
 
 1. Chascedin, or Chaldeans, properly so called, being 
 astronomers. 
 
 2. Asaphim, or magicians; such were Zoroastres, 
 and Balaam the son of Beor. 
 
 3. Chatumim, or interpreter of dreams, and hard 
 speeches, enchanters, &c. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 247 
 
 4. Mecasphim, or witches, called, at first, prophets, 
 afterwards Malefici, or Venifici, poisoners. 
 
 5. Gazarim, or Aruspices, and diviners, such as di- 
 vined by the entrails of beasts, the liver in particular ; 
 mentioned in Ezekiel, or, as others, called augurs. 
 
 Now, as to all these, I suppose I may do them no 
 wrong, if I say, however justifiable they were in the 
 beginning, the Devil got them all into his service at 
 last ; and that brings me to my text again, from which 
 the rest was a digression. 
 
 1. The Chascedin, or Chaldean astronomers, turned 
 astrologers, fortune tellers, calculators of nativities, 
 and vile deluders of the people, as if the wisdom of 
 the holy God was in them, as Nebuchadnezzar said of 
 Daniel, on that very account. 
 
 2. The Asaphim, or magi, or magicians. Sixtus 
 Senensis says, they were such as wrought by covenant 
 with devils, but turned to it from their wisdom, which 
 was to study the practical part of natural philosophy, 
 working admirable effects by the mutual application 
 of natural causes. 
 
 3. The Chatumirn, from being reasoners, or disputers 
 upon difficult points in philosophy, became enchant- 
 ers and conjurers. So, 
 
 4. The Mecasphim, or prophets, they turned to be 
 sorcerers, raisers of spirits, such as wounded by an 
 evil eye, and by bitter curses, and were afterwards 
 famed for having familiar converse with the Devil, and 
 were called witches. 
 
 5. The Gazarim, from the bare observing of the good 
 and bad omens, by the entrails of beasts, flying of 
 birds, &c., were turned to sacrists or priests of the hea- 
 then idols and sacrifices. 
 
 Thus, I say, first or last, the Devil engrossed all the 
 wise men of the East, for so they are called ; made 
 them all his own ; and by them he worked wonders, 
 that is, he filled the world with lying wonders, as if 
 wrought by these men, when indeed it was all his 
 own, from beginning to the end, and set on foot merely 
 to propagate delusion, impose upon blinded and igno- 
 rant men ; the god of this world blinded their minds, 
 and they were led away by the subtilty of the Devil, 
 to Say no worse of it, till they became devils themselves, 
 
248 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 as to mankind ; for they carried on the Devil's work 
 upon all occasions, and the race of them still continue 
 in other nations, and some of them among ourselves, 
 as we shall see presently. 
 
 The Arabians followed the Chaldeans in this study, 
 while it was kept within its due bounds, and after them 
 the Egyptians; and among the latter we find that Jan- 
 nes and Jambres were famous for their leading Pharaoh 
 by their pretended magic performances, to reject the 
 real miracles of Moses ; and history tells us of strange 
 pranks the wise men, the magicians, and the sooth- 
 sayers, played to delude the people in the most early 
 ages of the world. 
 
 But, as I say, now, the Devil has improved himself, 
 so he did then ; for the Grecian and Roman heathen 
 rites coming on, they out-did all the magicians and 
 soothsayers, by establishing the Devil's lying oracles, 
 which, as a masterpiece of hell, did the Devil more 
 honor, and brought more homage to him, than ever he 
 had before, or could arrive to since. 
 
 Again, as by the setting up the oracles, all the ma- 
 gicians and soothsayers grew out of credit; so at the 
 ceasing of those oracles, the Devil was fain to go back 
 to the old game again, and take up with the agency of 
 witches, divinations, enchantment, and conjurings. as 
 I hinted before, answerable to the four sorts mentioned 
 in the story of Nebuchadnezzar ; namely, magicians, 
 astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers How 
 these began to be out of request, I have mentioned al- 
 ready ; but as the Devil has not quite given them over, 
 only laid them aside a little for the present, we may 
 ventufe to ask what they were, and what use he made 
 of them when he did employ them. 
 
 The truth is, I think, as it was a very mean em- 
 ployment for anything that wears an human counte- 
 nance to take up ; so I must acknowledge, I think, it 
 was a mean, low-priced business for Satan to take up 
 with ; below the very Devil ; below his dignity as an 
 angelic, though condemned creature ; below him even 
 as a devil ; to go to talk to a parcel of ugly, deformed, 
 spiteful, malicious old women ; to give them power to 
 do mischief, who never. had a will, after they entered 
 into the state of old-womanhood, to do anything else. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 249 
 
 Why the Devil always chose the ugliest old women 
 he could find; whether wizardism made them ugly, 
 that were not so before ; and whether the ugliness, as 
 it was a beauty in witchcraft, did not increase accord- 
 ing to the meritorious performance in the black trade 1 
 These are all questions of moment to be decided, (if 
 human learning can arrive to so much perfection,) in 
 ages to come. 
 
 Some say the evil eye, and the wicked look, were 
 parts of the enchantment ; and that the witches, when 
 they were in the height of their business, had a pow- 
 erful influence with both; that by looking upon any 
 person they could bewitch them, and make the Devil, 
 as the Scots express it, ride through them booted and 
 spurred; and that hence came that very significant 
 saying, to look like a witch. 
 
 The strange work which the Devil has made in the 
 world, by this sort of his agents, called witches, is 
 such, and so extravagantly wild, that except our hope 
 that most of those tales happen not to be true, I know 
 not how any one could be easy to live near a widow, 
 after she was five-and-fifty. 
 
 All the other sorts of emissaries which Satan em- 
 ploys, comes short of these. Ghosts and apparitions 
 sometimes come and show themselves, on particular 
 accounts ; and some of those particulars respect doing 
 justice, repairing wrongs, preventing mischief; some- 
 times in matters very considerable, and on things so 
 necessary to public benefit, that we are tempted to be- 
 lieve they proceed from some vigilant spirit, who 
 wishes us well ; but, on the other hand, these witches 
 are never concerned in anything but mischief; nay, if 
 what they do, portends good to one, it issues in hurt to 
 many; the whole tenor of their life, their design in 
 general, is to do mischief; and they are only employed 
 in mischief, and nothing else. How far they are fur- 
 nished with ability suitable to the horrid will they are 
 vested with, remains to be described. 
 
 These witches, it is said, are furnished with power 
 suitable to the occasion that is before them, and parti- 
 cularly that which deserves to be considered : as pre- 
 dictions, and foretelling events, which, I insist, the 
 author of witchcraft is not accomplished with himself, 
 
250 THE MODERN HISTORY 
 
 OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 nor can he communicate it to any other. How then 
 witches come to be able to foretell things to come, 
 which, it is said, the Devil himself cannot know, and 
 which, as I have shown, it is evident he does not know 
 himself, is yet to be determined. That witches do 
 foretell, is certain, from the Witch of Endor, who fore- 
 told things to Saul, which he knew not before, name- 
 ly, that he should be slain in battle the next day, 
 which accordingly came to pass. 
 
 There are, however, and notwithstanding this par- 
 ticular case, many instances wherein the Devil has not 
 been able to foretell approaching events, and that in 
 things of the utmost consequence ; and he has given 
 certain foolish or false answers in such cases. The 
 devil's priests, which were summoned in by the prophet 
 Elijah, to decide the dispute between God and Baal, 
 had the Devil been able to have informed them of it, 
 would certainly have received notice from him, of 
 what was intended against them by Elijah ; that is to 
 say, that they would be all cut in pieces ; for Satan 
 was not such a fool as not to know, that Baal was a 
 nonentity, a nothing, at best a dead man, perished and 
 rotting in his grave; for Baal was Bel, or Belus, an 
 ancient king of the Assyrian monarchy ; and he could 
 no more answer, by fire, to consume the sacrifice; than 
 he could raise himself from the dead. 
 
 But the priests of Baal were left of their master to 
 their just fate, namely, to be a sacrifice to the fury of 
 a deluded people. Hence I infer his inability; for it 
 would have been very unkind and ungrateful in him 
 not to have answered them, if he had been able. 
 There is another argument raised here most justly 
 against the Devil, with relation to his being under 
 restraint, and that of greater eminence than we imag- 
 ine ; and it is drawn from this very passage, thus : It 
 is not to be doubted but that Satan, who has much of 
 the element put into his hands, as prince of the air, 
 had a power, or was able, potentially speaking, to 
 have answered Baal's priests by fire ; fire being, in 
 virtue of his airy principality, a part of his dominion ; 
 but he was certainly withheld by the Superior hand, 
 which gave him that dominion, I mean, withheld for 
 the occasion only. So in another case, it was plain 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 251 
 
 that Balaam, who was one of those sort of Chaldeans, 
 mentioned above, who dealt in divinations and en- 
 chantments, was withheld from cursing Israel. 
 
 Some are of opinion, that Balaam was not a witch, 
 or a dealer with the Devil ; because it is said of him, 
 or rather, he says it of himself, that he saw the visions 
 of God, Numb. xxiv. 16. " He hath said, who heard 
 the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the 
 most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, 
 falling into a trance, but having his eyes open." Hence 
 they allege he was one of those magi, which St. Au- 
 gustine speaks of, dc Divinatione, who, by the study 
 of nature, and by the contemplation of created beings, 
 came to the knowledge of the Creator ; and that Ba- 
 laam's fault was, that, being tempted by the rewards 
 and honors that the king promised him, he intended to 
 have cursed Israel; but when his eyes were opened, 
 and that ho saw they were God's own people, he durst 
 not do it; they will have it therefore, that, except as 
 above, Balaam was a good man, or at least, that he 
 had the knowledge of the true God, and the fear of 
 that God upon him ; and that he honestly declares this. 
 Nijmb. xxii. 18. " If Balak would give me his house 
 full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of 
 the Lord my God." Where, though he is called a false 
 prophet by some, he evidently owns God, and assumes 
 a property in him, as other prophets did; my God, 
 and I cannot go beyond his orders. But that which 
 gives me a better opinion of Balaam than all this, is 
 his plain prophecy of Christ, chapter xxiv. 17, where 
 he calls him the Star of Jacob ; and declares, "I shall 
 see him, but not now ; I shall behold him, but not nigh ; 
 there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre 
 shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of 
 Moab. and destroy all the children of Sheth;" all which 
 express not a knowledge only, but a faith in Christ; 
 but I have done preaching ; this is all by-the-by ; I 
 return to my business, which is, the history. 
 
 There is another piece of dark practice here, which 
 lies between Satan and his particular agents, and 
 which they must give us an answer to, when they 
 can, which, I think, will not be in haste; and that is, 
 about the obsequious devil submitting to be called up 
 
852 
 
 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 into visibility, whenever an old woman has her hand 
 crossed with a white sixpence, as they call it. One 
 would think that instead of these vile things, called 
 witches, being sold to the Devil, the Devil was really 
 sold for a slave to them ; for how far soever Satan's 
 residence is off of this state of life, they have power, it 
 seems, to fetch him from home, and oblige him to come 
 at their call. 
 
 I can give little account of this, only that indeed so 
 it is; nor is the thing so strange in itself, as the 
 methods to do it are mean, foolish, and ridiculous; as 
 making a circle, and dancing in it, pronouncing such 
 and such words, saying the Lord's prayer backward T 
 and the like. Now is this agreeable to the dignity of 
 the prince of the air or atmosphere, that he should be 
 commanded forth with no more pomp or ceremony, 
 than that of muttering a few words, such as the old 
 witches and he agree about ? or is there something else 
 in it, which none of us, or themselves, understand ? 
 
 Perhaps, indeed, he is always with those people 
 called witches and conjurers, or, at least, some of his 
 camp volant are always present ; and so, upon the least 
 call of the wizard, it is but putting off the misty cloak, 
 and showing themselves. 
 
 Then we have a piece of mock pageantry in bring- 
 ing those things called witches or conjurers to justice ; 
 that is, first, to know if a woman be a witch, throw 
 her into a pond, and if she be a witch, she will swim, 
 and it is not in her own power to prevent it ; if she 
 does all she can to sink herself, it will not do, she will 
 swim like a cork. Then, that a rope will riot hang a 
 witch, but you must get a withe, a green osier ; that 
 if you nail an horseshoe on the sill of the door, she 
 cannot come into the house, or get out, if she be in ; 
 these, and a thousand more, too simple to be believed, 
 are yet so vouched, so taken for granted, and so uni- 
 versally received for truth, that there is no resisting 
 them without being thought atheistical. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 253 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of the various methods the Devil takes to converse with 
 mankind. 
 
 HAVING spoken something of persons, and particular- 
 ly of such as the Devil thinks fit to employ in his 
 affairs in the world, it comes next of course to say 
 something of the manner how he communicates his 
 mind to them, and, by them, to the rest of his acquaint- 
 ance in the world. 
 
 I take the Devil to be under great difficulties in his 
 affairs on his part, especially occasioned by the bounds 
 which are set him, or which policy obliges him to set 
 to himself, in his access to the conversing with man- 
 kind ; it is evident he is not permitted to fall upon them 
 with force and arms, that is to say, to muster up his 
 infernal troops, and attack them with fire and sword ; 
 if he was loose, to act in this manner, as he was able, 
 by his own seraphic power to have destroyed the whole 
 race, and even the earth they dwelt upon, so he would 
 certainly, and long ago, have effectually done it; his 
 particular interests and inclinations are well enough 
 known. 
 
 But, in the next place, as he is thus restrained from 
 violence, so prudentials restrain him, in all his other 
 actings with mankind ; and, being confined to strata- 
 gem, and soft, still methods, such as persuasion, al- 
 lurement, feeding the appetite, prompting, and then 
 gratifying corrupt desires, and the like ; he finds it for 
 his purpose not to appear in person, except very rare- 
 ly, and then in disguise: but to act all the rest in the 
 dark, under the vizor of art and craft, making use of 
 persons and methods concealed, or at least not fully 
 understood or discovered. 
 
 As to the persons whom he employs, I have taken 
 some pains, you see, to discover some of them ; but the 
 methods he uses with them, either to inform and in- 
 struct, and give orders to them, or to converse with 
 other people by them, these are very particular, an<J 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 deserve some place in our memoirs; particularly as 
 they may serve to remove some of our mistakes, and 
 to take off some of the frightful ideas we are apt to 
 entertain, in prejudice of this great manager ; as if he 
 was no more to be matched in his politics, than he 
 -would be to be matched in his power, if it was let 
 loose ; which is so much a mistake, that, on the con- 
 trary, we read of several people that have abused and 
 cheated the Devil, a thing, which I cannot say r is very 
 honest nor just, notwithstanding the old Latin proverb, 
 Fatter e fallentem non est fraus, (which men construe, 
 or rather render, by way of banter upon Satan, It is no 
 sin to cheat the Devil ;) which, for all that, upon the 
 whole, I deny ; and allege, that let the Devil act how 
 he will by us, we ought to deal fairly by him. 
 
 But to come to the business, without circumlocu- 
 tions ; 1 am to inquire how Satan issues out his orders, 
 gives his instructions, and fully delivers his mind to 
 his emissaries, of whom I mentioned some in the title 
 to chapter IX. In order to this, you must form an 
 idea of the Devil sitting in great state, in open cam- 
 paign, with all his legions about him, in the height of 
 the atmosphere; or, if you will, at a certain distance 
 from the atmosphere, and above it, that the plan of his 
 encampment might not be hurried round its own axis, 
 with the earth's diurnal motion, which might be some 
 disturbance to him. 
 
 By this fixed situation, the earth performing its rota- 
 tion, he has every part and parcel of it brought to a 
 direct opposition to him, and consequently to his view 
 once in twenty-four hours. The last time I was there, 
 if I remember right, he had this quarter of the world, 
 which we call Christendom, just under his eye ; and 
 the motion is not so swift, but that his piercing optics 
 can take a strict view of it en passant ; for the circum- 
 ference of it being but twenty-one thousand miles, and 
 its circular motion being full twenty-four hours per- 
 forming, he has something more than an hour to view 
 every thousand miles, which, to his supernatural pen- 
 etration, is not worth naming. 
 
 As he takes thus a daily view of all the circle, and 
 an hourly view of the parts, he is fully master of all 
 transactions, at least such as are done above board, by 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 255 
 
 all mankind ; and then he despatches his emissarias, 
 or aid-de-camps, to every part, with his orders and 
 instructions. Now these emissaries, you are to under- 
 stand, are not the witches and diviners, whom I spoke 
 of above, for I call them also emissaries ; but they are 
 all devils, or (as you know they are called) devil's 
 angels ; and these may, perhaps, come and converse 
 personally with the sub-emissaries I mentioned, to be 
 ready for their support and assistance, on all occasions 
 of business. These are those devils which the witches 
 are said to raise ; for we can hardly suppose the mas- 
 ter Devil comes himself, at the summons of every ugly 
 old woman. 
 
 These run about into every nook and corner, wher- 
 ever Satan's business calls them, and are never want- 
 ing to him ; but are the most diligent devils imaginable ; 
 like the Turkish chiaux, they no sooner receive their 
 errand, but they execute it with the utmost alacrity ; 
 and as to their speed, it may be truly written as a 
 motto, upon the head of every individual devil, 
 
 Non indiget calcaribus. 
 
 These are those, whom, they tell us, our witches, 
 sorcerers, wizards, and such sorts of folks, converse 
 freely with, and are therefore called their familiars; 
 and, as they tell us, come to them in human shapes, 
 talk to them with articulate plain voices, as if men ; 
 and that yet the said witches, &c. know them to be 
 devils. 
 
 History has not yet enlightened us in this part of 
 useful knowledge, or at least not sufficiently for a 
 description of the persons or habits of these sorts of 
 appearances ; as what shapes they take up, what lan- 
 guage they speak, and what particular works they 
 perform; so we must refer it to farther inquiry; but if 
 we may credit history, we are told many famous sto- 
 ries of these appearances; for example, the famous 
 Mother Laldand, who was burnt for a witch at Ips- 
 wich, A. D. 1646, confessed, at the time of her execu- 
 tion, or a little before it, that she had frequent conver- 
 sation with the Devil himself; that she being very poor, 
 and, withal, of a devilish passionate, cruel, and re- 
 
256 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 vengeful disposition, before, used to wish she had it in 
 her power to do such and such mischievous things to 
 some that she hated ; and that the Devil himself, who, 
 it seems, knew her temper, came to her one night, as 
 she lay in her bed, and was between sleeping and 
 waking, and, speaking in a deep hollow voice, told 
 her, if she would serve him in some things he would 
 employ her to do, she should have her will of all her 
 enemies, and should want for nothing. That she was 
 much afraid at first; but that he, soliciting her very 
 often, bade her not be afraid of him, and still urged 
 her to yield ; and, as she says, struck his claw into 
 her hand, and though it did not hurt her, made it bleed, 
 and with the blood wrote the covenant ; that is to say, 
 the bargain between them. Being asked what was in 
 it, and whether he required her to curse or deny God 
 or Christ ? she said no. 
 
 N. B. I do not find she told them, whether the 
 Devil wrote it with a pen, or whether on paper, or 
 parchment, nor whether she signed it or no; but it 
 seems he carried it away with him. I suppose, if 
 Satan's register were examined, it might be found 
 among the archives of hell, the rolls of his acta publi- 
 ca ; and, when his historiographer royal publishes 
 them, we may look for it among them. 
 
 Then he furnished her with three devils, to wait 
 upon her (I suppose ;) for she confessed they were to 
 be employed in her service ; they attended in the 
 shapes of two little dogs, and a mole. The first she 
 bewitched was her own husband, by which he lay 
 awhile in great misery, and died; then she sent to one 
 Captain Beal, and burnt a new ship of his, just built, 
 which had never been at sea ; these, and many other 
 horrid things, she did and confessed ; and having been 
 twenty years a witch, at last the Devil left her, and 
 she was burnt as she deserved. 
 
 That some extraordinary occasions may bring these 
 agents of the Devil, nay, sometimes the Devil himself, 
 to assume human shapes, and appear to other people, 
 we cannot doubt ; he did thus in the case of our Saviour 
 as a tempter, and some think he did so to Manasses as 
 a familiar, whom the Scripture charges with sorcery, 
 and having a familiar or devil ; fame tells us, that St. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 257 
 
 Dunstan frequently conversed with him, and finally, 
 took him by the nose ; arid so of others. 
 
 But, in these modern ages of the world, he finds it 
 much more to his purpose to work under ground, as I 
 have observed, and to keep upon the reserve ; so that 
 we have no authentic accounts of his personal appear- 
 ance, but what are very ancient, or very remote from 
 our faith, as well as our inquiry. 
 
 It seems to be a question, that would bear some de- 
 bating, whether all apparitions are not devils, or from 
 the Devil; but there being so many of those appari- 
 tions, which we call spirits, which really assume 
 shapes, and make appearances, in the world, upon 
 such accounts as, we know, Satan himself scorns to be 
 employed in, that I must dismiss the question in favor 
 of the Devil; assuring them, that as he never wil- 
 lingly did any good in his life, so he would be far from 
 giving himself the trouble of setting one foot into the 
 world, on such an errand ; and, for that reason, we 
 may be assured those certain apparitions, which we 
 are told came to detect a murderer in Gloucestershire, 
 and others, who appeared to prevent the ruining an 
 orphan, for want of finding a deed that was not lost, 
 was certainly some other power equally concerned, and 
 not the Devil. 
 
 On the other hand, neither will it follow, that Satan 
 never appears in human shape; for though every ap- 
 parition may not be the Devil, yet it does not follow, 
 that the Devil never makes an apparition. All I shall 
 say to it is, as I have mentioned before, that, generally 
 speaking, the Devil finds it more for his purpose, to 
 have his interest in the world propagated another way ; 
 namely, in private ; and his personal appearances are 
 reserved for things only of extraordinary consequence, 
 and, as I may say, of evident necessity, where his 
 honor is concerned, and where his interest could be 
 carried on no other way ; not forgetting to take notice, 
 that this is very seldom. 
 
 It remains to inquire, what then those things are, 
 which we make so much stir about, and which are 
 called apparitions, or spirits assuming human shapes, 
 and showing themselves to people on particular occa- 
 sions ? Whether they are evil spirits, or good ? And 
 22* 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 though, indeed, this is out of my way at this time, and 
 does not relate at all to the Devil's history, yet I 
 thought it not amiss to mention it : 1. Because, as I 
 have said, I do not wholly exclude Satan from all 
 concern in such things ; and, 2. Because I shall dis- 
 miss the question with so very short an answer ; 
 namely, that we may determine which are, and which 
 are not, the Devil's, by the errand they come upon ; 
 every one to his own business ; if it comes of a good 
 errand, you may certainly acquit the Devil of it, con- 
 clude him innocent, and that he has no hand in it; if 
 he comes of a wicked and devilish errand, you may 
 even take him up upon suspicion, it is ten to one but 
 you find him at the bottom of it. 
 
 Next to apparitions, we find mankind disturbed by 
 abundance of little odd reserved ways, which the Devil 
 is shrewdly suspected of having an hand in, such as 
 dreams, noises, voices, &c. smells of brimstone, can- 
 dles burning blue, and the like. 
 
 As to dreams, I have nothing to say in Satan's pre- 
 judice at all there; I make no question but he deals 
 very much in that kind of intelligence ; and why 
 should he not ? We know heaven itself formerly con- 
 versed very often with the greatest of men, by the 
 same method; arid the Devil is known to mimic the 
 methods, as well as the actions of his Maker ; whether 
 heaven has not quite left off that way of working, we 
 are not certain; but we pretty well know the Devil 
 has not left it ; and I believe some instances may be 
 given where his worship has been really seen and 
 talked to in sleep, as much as if the person had been 
 awake with his eyes open. 
 
 These are to be distinguished too, pretty much by 
 the goodness or badness of the subject. How often 
 have men committed murder, robbery, and adultery, 
 in a dream ; and, at the same time, except an extra- 
 ordinary agitation of the soul, and expressed by ex- 
 traordinary noises in the sleep, by violent sweating, 
 and other such ways, the head has never been removed 
 from the pillow, or the body so much as turned in the 
 bed! 
 
 Whether in such cases, the soul, with all the passions 
 and affections, being agitated, and giving their full 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 259 
 
 assent to the facts, of what kind soever, the man 
 is not as guilty as if the sins so dreamed, of his com- 
 mitting had been actually com milted ? though it be no 
 doubt to me, but that it is so ; yet, as it is foreign to 
 the present affair, and not at all relating to the Devil's 
 history, I leave it to the reverend doctors of the church, 
 as properly belonging to them to decide. 
 
 By this method, the Devil injects powerful incen- 
 tives to crimes; provokes avarice, by laying a great 
 quantity of gold in your view, and nobody present, 
 giving you an opportunity to steal it, or some of it, at 
 the same time, perhaps, knowing your circumstances 
 to be such, as that you are at that time in a great want 
 of the money. 
 
 I knew a tradesman, and in great distress for money 
 in his business, dreamed that he was walking all alone 
 in a great wood, and that he met a little child with a 
 bag of gold in its hand, and a fine necklace of diamonds 
 on its neck. Upon the sight, his wants presently dic- 
 tated to him to rob the child ; the little innocent crea- 
 ture (just so he dreamed) riot being able to resist; or 
 to tell who it was. Accordingly he consented to take 
 the money from the child, and then to take the diamond 
 necklace from it too, and did so. 
 
 But the Devil, (a full testimony, as I told him, that 
 it was the Devil,) not contented with that, hinted to 
 him, that perhaps the child might, some time or other, 
 know him and single him out, by crying out or point- 
 ing, or some such thing, especially if he was suspected, 
 and showed to it ; and therefore it would be better for 
 him to kill the child, prompting him to kill it for his 
 own safety, and that he need do no more but twist the 
 neck of it a little, or crush it with his knee ; he 
 told me he stood debating with himself, whether he 
 should do so or not ; but that in that instant, his heart 
 struck him with the word murder, and he enter- 
 tained an horror of it, refused to do it, and immedi- 
 ately waked. 
 
 He told me, that when he waked, he found himself 
 in so violent a sweat, as he never had known the tike ; 
 that his pulse beat with that heat and rage, that it was 
 like a palpitation of the heart to him ; and that the 
 agitation of his spirits was such, that he was not fully 
 
260 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 composed in some hours : though the satisfaction and 
 joy that attended him, when he found it was but a 
 dream, assisted much to return his spirits to their due 
 temperament. 
 
 It is neither my business or inclination to turn di- 
 vine here, nor is the age I write to sufficiently grave to 
 relish a sermon, if I was disposed to preach, though 
 they must allow the subject would very well bear it ; 
 but I shall only ask them, if they think this is not the 
 Devil, what they think it is? If they believe it is the 
 Devil, they will act accordingly, I hope, or let it alone, 
 as Satan and they can agree about it. 
 
 I should not oblige the Devil over-much, whatever 
 I might do to those that read it, if I should enter here 
 upon a debate of interests ; namely, to inquire whether 
 the Devil has not a vast advantage upon mankind this 
 way, and whether it is not much his interest to pre- 
 serve it. And if I prove the affirmative, I leave it to 
 you to inquire, whose interest it is to disappoint and 
 supplant him. 
 
 In short, I take dreams to be the second best of the 
 advantages the Devil has over mankind ; the first, I 
 suppose, you all know, namely, the treachery of the 
 garrison within ; by dreams he may be said to get into 
 the inside of us, without opposition ; here he opens and 
 locks without a key, and like an enemy laying siege 
 to a fortified city, reason and nature, the governor of 
 the city, keep him out by day, and keep the garrison 
 true to their duty; but in the dark he gets in, and par- 
 leys with the garrison (the affections and passions ;) 
 debauches their loyalty, stirring up them to disloyalty 
 and rebellion ; so they betray their trust, revolt, mu- 
 tiny, and go over to the besieger. 
 
 Thus he manages his interest, I say, and insinuates 
 himself into the inside of us, without our consent ; nay, 
 without our knowledge; for, whatever speculation may 
 do, it is evident demonstration does not assist us to dis- 
 cover, which way he gets access to the soul, while the 
 organ tied up, and dozed with sleep, has locked it up 
 from action. That it is so, is clear ; but how he does 
 it, is a secret, which I do not find the ancients or 
 moderns have yet made a discovery of. 
 
 That devil of a creature, mother Lakland, whose 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 261 
 
 story I mentioned above, acknowledged, that the first 
 time the Devil attempted to draw her in, to be a witch, 
 was in a dream; and even when she consented, she 
 said, she was between sleeping and waking ; that is, 
 she did not know whether she was awake or asleep ; 
 and the cunning Devil, it seems, was satisfied with her 
 assent given so, when she was asleep, or neither asleep 
 nor awake ; so taking the advantage of her incapacity 
 to act rationally. 
 
 The stories of her bewitching several people, and the 
 manner in which they died, are so formidable and ex- 
 travagant, that I care not to put any one's faith to 
 the stretch about them ; though published by authority, 
 and testified by abundance of witnesses; but this is 
 recorded in particular, and to my purpose ; whether 
 from her own mouth or not, I do not say ; namely, the 
 description of a witch, and the difference between 
 witches, and those other Satan's acquaintance who act 
 in his name. 
 
 1. They have consulted and covenanted with a 
 spirit, or devil. 
 
 2. They have a deputy devil ; sometimes several, to 
 serve and assist them. 
 
 3. These they employ as they please ; call them by 
 name; and command their appearance in whatever 
 shape they think fit. 
 
 4. They send them abroad to, or into, the persons 
 whom they design to bewitch ; whom they always tor- 
 ment, and often murder them, as mother Lakland did 
 several. 
 
 As to the difference between the several devils that 
 appear, it relates to the office of the persons who em- 
 ploy them ; as conjurers, who seem to command the 
 particular devil that waits upon them with more au- 
 thority; and raise them, and lay them, at pleasure; 
 drawing circles, casting figures, and the like ; but the 
 witch, in a more familiar manner, whispers with the 
 Devil ; keeps the Devil in a bag, or a sack, sometimes 
 in her pocket; and the like; and, like Mr. Faux, 
 shows tricks with him. 
 
 But all these kinds deal much in dreams ; talk with 
 the Devil in their sleep ; arid make other people talk 
 with him in their sleep too ; and it is on this occasion 
 
262 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 I mention it here; in short, the Devil may well take 
 this opportunity with mankind, for not half the world 
 that came into his measures would comply, if they 
 were awake ; but of that hereafter. 
 
 And yet his thus insinuating himself by dream, does 
 not seem sufficient, in my opinion, to answer the 
 Devil's end, and to carry on his business ; and there- 
 fore we must be forced to allow him a kind of actual 
 possession, in particular cases, and that in the souls of 
 some people, by different methods from others. Luther 
 is of the opinion that the Devil gets a familiarity with 
 some souls just at, or rather before, their being em- 
 bodied ; as to the manner and method how he gets in, 
 that is another question, and may be spoken of by 
 itself; besides, why may not he, that at Satan's re- 
 quest to enter into the herd of swine, said, Go, give 
 the same commission to possess a sort of creatures so 
 many degrees below the -dignity of the Gadarenian 
 swine, and open the door too. But as for that, when 
 our Lord said, Go, the Devil never inquired which 
 way he should get in. 
 
 When then I see nations, or indeed herds of nations, 
 set on fire of hell, and, as I may say, inflamed by the 
 Devil; when I see towns, parties, factions, and rab- 
 bles of people, visibly possessed , it is enough to me 
 that the great master of the Devils has said to him, 
 Go ; there is no need to inquire which way he finds 
 open, or at what postern-gate he gets in ; as to his 
 appearing, it is plain he often gets in without ap- 
 pearing ; and therefore the question about his appear- 
 ing still remains a doubt, and is not very easy to be 
 resolved. 
 
 In the scripture we have some light into it, and that 
 is all the help I find from antiquity ; and it goes a great 
 way to solve the phenomena of Satan's appearing. 
 What I mean by the scripture giving some light to it, 
 is this. It is said in several places, and of several per- 
 sons, God came to them in a dream. Gen. xx. 3. " God 
 came to Abimelech in a dream by night." Gen. xxxi. 
 34. "And came to Laban the Syrian, in a dream." 
 Matt. ii. 13. "The angel of the Lord appeared to 
 Joseph in a dream." Short comments are sufficient to 
 plain texts. Applying this to my friend, when he 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 263 
 
 wanted to be satisfied about the how. relating to his 
 dream ; namely, how he should come to dream such 
 wicked things'? 1 told him, in short, the case was 
 plain, the Devil came to him in a dream by night. 
 How, and in what manner, he formed the wicked 
 representations, and spread debauched appearances 
 before his fancy, by real whispers and voice, accord- 
 ing to Milton, or by what other methods, the learned 
 are not arrived to any certainty about it. 
 
 This leads me necessarily to inquire, whether the 
 Devil, or some of his agents are not always in our 
 company, whether they make any visible appearances 
 or no? For my part, I make no question of it ; how 
 else could he come at the knowledge of what we do? 
 for as I can allow him no prescience at all, as for many 
 reasons I have observed already, he must be able to 
 see and know us, and what we are about, when we 
 know nothing of him, or else he could know nothing 
 of us and our affairs, which yet we find otherwise ; 
 and this gives him infinite advantage to influence our 
 actions, to judge of our inclinations, and to bring our 
 passions to clash with our reason, as they often do, and 
 get the better of it too. 
 
 All this he obtains by his being able to walk about 
 invisible, and see when he is not seen, of which I have 
 spoken already ; hence that most wise and solid sug- 
 gestion, that when the candles burn blue, the devil is 
 in the room ; which great secret in nature, that you 
 may be more fully convinced of its imaginary reality, 
 I must tell you the following story, which I saw in a 
 letter directed to a particular friend ; take it word for 
 word as in the letter, because I do not make myself 
 accountable for the facts, but take them ad referen- 
 dum. 
 
 SIR, We had one day, very early in the morning, 
 and for the most part of the day, a great deal of rain, 
 with an high wind, and the clouds very thick and dark 
 all day. 
 
 In the evening, the cloudy thick weather continued, 
 though not the rain; when being at a friend's house in 
 Lane, London, and several ladies, and some gen- 
 tlemen, in the room, besides two or three servants, (for 
 we had been eating,) the following interlude happened 
 
264 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 for our entertainment. When the cloth was taken 
 away, two large candles were brought upon the table, 
 and placed there with some bottles and glasses for the 
 gentlemen, who, it seems, were intending to drink, and 
 be very merry ; two large wax candles were also set on 
 another table, the ladies being going to cards ; also 
 there were two large candles in sconces over or near 
 the chimney ; and one more in a looking-glass sconce, 
 on a pier by the window. 
 
 With all this apparatus, the company separating sat 
 down ; the gentlemen at their table, and the ladies at 
 theirs, to play as above; when, after some time, 
 the gentleman of the house said hastily to a servant, 
 
 " What a p ails the candles?' 1 and turning to the 
 
 servant, raps out an oath or two, and bids him snuff 
 the candles, for they burnt as if the Devil was in the 
 room. 
 
 The fellow, going to snuff one of the candles, snuffs 
 it out ; at which, his master being in a passion, the 
 fellow lights it again immediately at the other candle; 
 and then, being in a little hurry, going to snuff the 
 other candle, snuffed that out too. 
 
 The first candle that was relighted (as is usual in 
 such cases) burned dim and dull for a good while ; and, 
 the other being out, the room was much darker than 
 before ; and a wench that stood by the ladies' table, 
 bawls out to her mistress, " Law, madam ! the candles 
 burn blue!" An old lady that sat by says, "Ay, 
 Betty, so they do." Upon this, one of the ladies starts 
 up; "Mercy upon us !" said she, " what is the mat- 
 ter?" In this unlucky moment another servant, with- 
 out orders, went to the great pier-sconce ; and because, 
 as he thought, he would be sure to snuff the candle 
 well, he offers to take it down, but very unhappily, I 
 say, the hook came out, down falls the sconce, candle 
 and all ; and the looking-glass broke all to pieces, with 
 an horrible noise; however the candle falling out of 
 the sconce did not go out, but lay on the floor burning 
 dully, and as it is usual on such cases, all on one side. 
 Betty cries out again, "Law, madam, that candle 
 burns blue too;" the very moment she said this, the 
 footman that had thrown down the sconce, says to his 
 fellow-servant, that came to his assistance, "I think 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 265 
 
 the Devil is in the candles to-night;" and away he 
 ran out of the room, for fear of his master. 
 
 The old lady, who, upon the maid Betty's notion 
 of the candles burning blue, had her head just full of 
 that old chimney-corner story, " the candles burn blue 
 when the spirits are in the room," heard the footman 
 say the word Devil, but heard nothing else of what he 
 said ; upon this, she rises up in a terrible fright, and 
 cries out, that the footman said the Devil was in the 
 room. As she was, indeed, frighted out of her wits, 
 she frighted the ladies most terribly; and they all 
 starting up together, down goes the card-table, and 
 put the wax candles out. 
 
 Mrs. Betty, that had frighted them all, runs to the 
 sconce next the chimney ; but that having a long 
 snuff, she cried out it burnt blue too, and she durst not 
 touch it ; in short, though there were three candles 
 left still burning in. the room, yet the ladies were all 
 so frighted, that they and the maids too ran out of the 
 parlor, screaming like mad folks. The master, in a 
 rage, kicked his first man out of the room; and the 
 second man was run out to avoid, as I said before, the 
 like : so that no servant was to be had, but all was in 
 confusion. 
 
 The two other gentlemen, who were sitting at the 
 first table, kept their seats, composed and easy enough, 
 only concerned to see all the house in such a fright ; 
 it was true, they said, the candles burnt dim and very 
 oddly; but they could not perceive they burnt blue, 
 except one of those over the chimney, and that on the 
 table, which was relighted after the fellow had snuffed 
 it out. 
 
 However, the rnaid, the old lady, and the footman 
 that pulled down the sconce, all insist that the candles 
 burnt blue : and all pretend that the Devil was cer- 
 tainly in the room, and was the occasion of it ; and 
 they now come to me with the story, to desire my 
 opinion of it. 
 
 This put me upon inquiry into the notion of can- 
 dles burning blue when spirits are in a room ; which, 
 upon all the search into things, that I am able to make, 
 amounts to no more than this ; that upon any extraor- 
 dinary emission of sulphureous, or of nitrous particles, 
 23 
 
266 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 either in a close room, or in any not very open place, 
 if the quantity be great, a candle or lamp, or any such 
 little blaze of fire, will seem to be, or to barn blue ; and 
 if then they can prove, that any such effluvia attend 
 or are emitted from a spirit, then when Satan is at 
 hand, it may be so. 
 
 But then it is begging the question grossly, because 
 no man can assure us, that the Devil has any sul- 
 phureous particles about him. 
 
 It is true, the candles burn thus in mines and vaults, 
 and damp places ; and it is as true, that they will do 
 so upon occasion of very damp, stormy and moist air, 
 when an extraordinary quantity of vapors are sup- 
 posed to be dispersed abroad, as was the case when 
 this happened; and if there was anything of that in it 
 on that Monday night, the candles might, perhaps, 
 burn blue upon that occasion ; but that the Devil was 
 abroad upon any extraordinary business that night, 
 that I cannot grant, unless I have some better testi- 
 mony than the old lady that heard the footman's out- 
 cry but by halves, or than Mrs. Betty, who first fan- 
 cied the candles burnt blue ; so I must suspend my 
 judgment till I hear farther. 
 
 This story, however, may solve a great many of 
 those things which pass for apparitions in the world, 
 and which are laid to the Devil's charge, though he 
 really may know nothing of the matter; and this 
 would bring me to defend Satan in many things, 
 wherein he may truly be said to suffer wrongfully ; 
 and if I thought it would oblige him, I might say 
 something to his advantage this way; however, I will 
 venture a word or two for an injured devil, take it as 
 yon will. 
 
 First, it is certain, that as this invisibility of the 
 Devil is very much to our prejudice, so the doctrine 
 of his visibility is a great prejudice to him, as we 
 make use of it. 
 
 By his invisibility he is certainly vested with infinite 
 advantages against us: while he can be present with 
 us. and we know nothing of the matter, he informs 
 himself of all our measures, and arms himself in the 
 best and most suitable manner to injure and assault 
 us, as he can counteract all our secret concerted 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 267 
 
 designs, disappoint all our schemes, and, except when 
 Heaven apparently concerns itself to overrule him, can 
 defeat all our enterprises, break all our measures, and 
 do us mischief in almost every part of our life ; and all 
 this, because we are not privy to all his motions, as he 
 is to ours. 
 
 But now for his visibility and his real appearance 
 in the world, and particularly among his disciples and 
 emissaries, such as witches and wizards, demoniacs, 
 and the like ; here, I think Satan has a great deal of 
 loss, suffers manifest injury, and has great injustice 
 done him ; and that therefore I ought to clear this 
 matter up a little, if it be possible, to do justice to 
 Satan, and set matters right in the world about him, 
 according to that useful old maxim, of setting the 
 saddle upon the right horse, or giving the Devil his 
 due. 
 
 First, as I have said, we are not to believe every 
 idle head, who pretends even to converse face to face 
 with the Devil ; and who tell us they have thus seen 
 him, and been acquainted with him every day. Many 
 of these pretenders are manifest cheats ; and, however 
 they would have the honor of a private interest in 
 him, and boast how they have him at their beck ; can 
 call him this way, and send him that, as they please ; 
 raise him, and lay him, when, and how, and as often 
 as they find for their purpose ; I say, whatever boasts 
 they make of this kind, they really have nothing of 
 truth in them. 
 
 Now the injuries and injustice done to the Devil, in 
 these cases, are manifest; namely, that they entitle the 
 Devil to all the mischief they are pleased to do in the 
 world ; and if they commit a murder or a robbery, fire 
 an house, or do any act of violence in the world, they 
 presently are said to do it by the agency of the Devil, 
 and the Devil helps them ; so Satan bears the reproach, 
 and they have all the guilt, This is, 1, A grand 
 cheat upon the world; and, 2, A notorious slander 
 upon the Devil ; and it would be a public benefit to 
 mankind, to have such would-be-devils as these turned 
 inside out, that we might know when the Devil was 
 really at work among us, and when not; what mis- 
 chiefs were of his doing, and which were not; and 
 
268 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 that these fellows might not slip their necks out of the 
 halter, by continually laying the blame of their wick- 
 edness upon the Devil. 
 
 Not that the Devil is not very willing to have his 
 hand in any mischief, or in all the mischief that is 
 done in the world ; but there are some low-priced 
 rogueries that are too little for him, beneath the dig- 
 nity of his operation, and which it is really a scandal 
 to the Devil to charge upon him. I remember the 
 Devil had such a cheat put upon him in East Smith- 
 field once, where a person pretended to converse with 
 the Devil face to face, and that in open day too, and 
 to cause him to tell fortunes, foretell good and evil, &c. ; 
 discover stolen goods ; tell where they were who stole 
 them, and how to find them again ; nay, and even to 
 find out the thieves. But Satan was really slandered 
 in the case ; the fellow had no more to do with the 
 Devil than other people, and, perhaps, not so much 
 neither. This was one of those they called cunning 
 men, or at least he endeavored to pass for such an 
 one ; but it was all a cheat. 
 
 Besides, what had the Devil to do to detect thieves, 
 and restore stolen goods? Thieving and robbing, 
 trick and cheat, are part of the craft of his agency, and 
 of the employments which it is his business to encour- 
 age. They greatly mistake him, who think he will 
 assist anybody in suppressing and detecting such laud- 
 able arts, and such diligent servants. 
 
 I wont say, but the Devil, to draw these people we 
 call cunning men, into a snare, and to push on his far- 
 ther designs, may encourage them privately, and in a 
 manner that they themselves know nothing of, to 
 make use of his name, and abuse the world about 
 him, till at last they may really believe they do deal 
 with the Devil, when, indeed, it is only he deals with 
 them, and they know nothing of the matter. 
 
 In other cases, he may encourage them in these little 
 frauds and cheats, and give them leave, as above, to 
 make use of his name, to bring them afterwards, and 
 by degrees, to have a real acquaintance with him ; 
 so bringing the jest of their trade into earnest, till 
 at length, prompting them to commit some great vil- 
 lany, he secures them to be his own, by their very 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 269 
 
 fear of his leaving them to be exposed to the world ; 
 thus he puts a Jonathan Wild upon them, a'nd makes 
 them be the very wretches they only pretended to be 
 before. So old Parsons, of Clithroe, as fame tells, was 
 twenty-five years a cunning man, and twenty-two 
 years a witch ; that is to say, for five-and-twenty 
 years, he was only pretending to deal with the Devil, 
 when Satan and he had no manner of acquaintance, 
 and he only put his legerdemain upon the people in 
 the Devil's name, without his leave; but, at length, 
 the Devil's patience being tired quite out, he told the 
 old counterfeit, that, in short, he had been his stalking- 
 horse long enough : and that now, if he thought fit to 
 enter himself, and take a commission, well and good ; 
 and he should have a lease to carry on his trade for so 
 many years more, to his heart's content ; but if not, he 
 would expose his knavery to the world, for that he 
 should take away his people's trade no longer; but 
 that he (Satan) would set up another in his room, 
 that should make a mere fool of him, and carry away 
 all his customers. 
 
 Upon this, the old man considered of it, took the 
 Devil's counsel, and listed in his pay ; so he, that had 
 played his pranks twenty-five years as a conjurer, when 
 he was no conjurer, was then forced really to deal with 
 the Devil, for fear the people should know he did not. 
 Till now, he had, ambo dexter, cheated the Devil on 
 one hand, and the people on the other; but the Devil 
 gained his point at last, and so he was a real wizard 
 ever after. 
 
 But this is not the only way the Devil is injured 
 neither; for we have often found people pretend upon 
 him in other cases, and of nearer concern to him a 
 great deal, and in articles more weighty, as, in partic- 
 ular, in the great business of possession. It is true this 
 point is not thoroughly understood among men, neither 
 has the Devil thought fit to give us those illuminations 
 about it, as I believe he might do ; particularly that 
 great and important article is not, for aught I can see, 
 rightly explained ; namely, whether there are not two 
 several kinds of possession ; namely, some wherein the 
 Devil possesses us, and some in which we really pos- 
 sess the Devil ; the nicety of which, I doubt, this age. 
 
270 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 with all its penetration, is not qualified to explain; 
 and a dissertation upon it, being too long for this work, 
 especially so near its conclusion, I am obliged to omit, 
 as I am also the practical discourses upon the useful- 
 ness and advantages of real possession, whether con- 
 sidered one way or other to mankind, all which I must 
 leave to hereafter. 
 
 But to come back to the point in hand, and to con- 
 sider the injustice done to the Devil, in the various 
 turns and tricks which men put upon him very often 
 in this one article; namely, pretending to possession, 
 and to have the Devil in them, when really it is not 
 so ; certainly the Devil must take it very ill, to have 
 all their demented, lunatic tricks charged upon him : 
 some of which, nay, most of which, are so gross, so 
 simple, so empty, and so little to the purpose, that the 
 Devil must be ashamed to see such things pass in his 
 name, or that the world should think he was concerned 
 in them. 
 
 It is true, that possession being one of the principal 
 pieces of the Devil's artifice in his managing mankind, 
 and in which, with the most exquisite skill, he plays 
 the Devil among us, he has the more reason to be 
 affronted, when he finds himself invaded in this part, 
 and angry, that anybody should pretend to possess, or 
 be possessed, without his leave ; and this may be the 
 reason, for aught we know, why so many blunders 
 have been made, when people have pretended to it 
 without him, and he has thought fit not to own them 
 in it ; of which we have many examples in history, 
 as in Simon Magus, the Devil of London, the fair 
 Maid of Kent, and several others, whose history it is 
 not worth while to enlarge upon. 
 
 In short, possessions, as I have said, are nice things. 
 As it is not so easy to mimic the Devil in that part, as 
 it may be in some other; designing men have at- 
 tempted it often ; but their manner has been easily 
 distinguished, even without the Devil's assistance. 
 
 Thus the people of Salem, in New England, pre- 
 tended to be bewitched, and that a black man tor- 
 mented them by the instigation of such and such, 
 whom they resolved to bring to the gallows. This 
 black man they would have to be the Devil, employed 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 271 
 
 by the person whom they accused for a witch ; thus 
 making the Devil a page, or a footman, to the wizard, 
 to go and torment whomever the said wizard com- 
 manded, till the Devil himself was so weary of the 
 foolish part, that he left them to go on their own way ; 
 and at last they overacted the murdering part so far, 
 that when they confessed themselves to be witches, 
 and possessed, and that they had correspondence with 
 the Devil, Satan not appearing to vouch for them, no 
 jury would condemn them upon their own evidence, 
 and they could not get themselves hanged, whatever 
 pains they took to bring it to pass. 
 
 Thus you see the Devil may be wronged, and falsly 
 accused, in many particulars, and often has been so ; 
 there are likewise some other sorts of counterfeit devils 
 in the world, such as gypsies, fortune-tellers, foretellers 
 of good and bad luck, sellers of winds, raisers of 
 storms, and many more, some practised among us, 
 some in foreign parts, too many almost to reckon up ; 
 nay, I almost doubt, whether the Devil himself knows 
 all the sorts of them; for it is evident, he has little or 
 nothing to do with them, I mean not in the way of 
 their craft. 
 
 These I take to be interlopers ; or, with the Guinea 
 merchants' leave, separate traders, and who act under 
 the screen and protection of Satan's power, but with- 
 out his license or authority ; no doubt these carry 
 away a great deal of his trade ; that is to say, the trade 
 which otherwise the Devil might have carried on by 
 agents of his own. I cannot but say, that while these 
 people would fain be thought devils, though they 
 really are not, it is but just they should be really made 
 as much devils as they pretended to be, or that Satan 
 should do himself justice upon them, as he threatened 
 to do upon old Parsons, of Clithroe, above mentioned, 
 and let the world know them. 
 
272 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Of divination, sorcery, the black art, pa-wawing, and 
 such like pretenders to devilism ; and how far the 
 Devil is, or is not, concerned in them. 
 
 THOUGH I am writing the history of the Devil, I have 
 not undertaken to do the like of all the kinds of people, 
 male or female, who set up for devils in the world. 
 This would be a task for the Devil indeed, and fit only 
 for him to undertake ; for their number is, and has 
 been, prodigious great ; and may, with his other legions, 
 be ranked among the innumerable. 
 
 What a world do we inhabit ! where there is not 
 only with us a great roaring-lion-devil daily seeking 
 whom of us he may devour, and innumerable millions 
 of lesser devils hovering in the whole atmosphere over 
 us, nay, for aught we know, other millions always in- 
 visibly moving about us, and perhaps in us, or at least 
 in many of us; but that have, besides all these, a vast 
 many counterfeit hocus-pocus-devils; human devils, 
 who are visible among us, of our own species and fra- 
 ternity, conversing with us upon all occasions; who 
 like mountebanks set up their stages in every town, 
 chat with us at every tea-table, converse with us in 
 every coffee-house, and impudently tell us to our faces, 
 that they are devils, boast of it, and use a thousand 
 tricks and arts to make us believe it too, and that too 
 often with success. 
 
 It must be confessed there is a strong propensity in 
 man's nature, especially the more ignorant part of 
 mankind, to resolve every strange thing, or whether 
 really strange or no, if it be but strange to us, into 
 devilism, and to say everything is the Devil, that they 
 can give no account of. 
 
 Thus the famous doctors of the faculty at Paris, 
 when John Faustus brought the first printed books 
 that had then been seen in the world, or at least seen 
 there, into the city, and sold them for manuscripts; 
 they were surprised at the performance, and questioned 
 
THE MODERN HISTOKY OF THE DEVIL. 273 
 
 Faustus about it ; but he affirming they were manu- 
 scripts, and that he kept a great many clerks employed 
 to write them, they were satisfied for a while. 
 
 But looking farther into the work, they observed the 
 exact agreement of every book, one with another, that 
 every line stood in the same place, every page a like 
 number of lines, every line a like number of words ; 
 if a word was misspelt in one, it was misspelt also in 
 all ; nay, that if there was a blot in one, it was alike 
 in all ; they began again to muse, how this should be? 
 In a word, the learned divines, not being able to com- 
 prehend the thing (and that was always sufficient,) 
 concluded it must be the Devil ; that it was done by 
 magic and witchcraft ; and that, in short, poor Faus- 
 tus (who was indeed nothing but a mere printer) dealt 
 with the Devil. 
 
 N. B. John Faustus was servant, or journeyman, 
 or compositor, or what you please to call it, to Koster, 
 of Harlem, the first inventor of printing ; and having 
 printed the psalter, sold them at Paris, as manuscripts ; 
 because, as such, they yielded a better price. 
 
 But the learned doctors, not being able to under- 
 stand how the work was performed, concluded as 
 above, it was all the Devil, and that the man was a 
 witch ; accordingly they took him up for a magician, 
 and a conjurer, and one that worked by the black art; 
 that is to say, by the help of the Devil ; and, in a 
 Avord, they threatened to hang him for a witch ; and, 
 in order to it, commenced a process against him in 
 their criminal courts, which made such a noise in the 
 world, as raised the fame of poor John Faustus to a 
 frightful height, till at last he was obliged, for fear of 
 the gallows, to discover the whole secret to them. 
 
 N. B. This is the true original of the famous Dr. 
 Faustus or Foster, of whom we have believed such 
 strange things, as that it is become a proverb, as great 
 as the Devil and Dr. Foster. Whereas poor Faustus 
 was no doctor, and knew no more of the Devil than 
 another body. 
 
 Thus the magistrates of Bern, in Switzerland, find- 
 ing a gang of French actors of puppet-show opened 
 their stage in the town, upon hearing the surprising 
 accounts which the people gave of their wonderful 
 
274 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 puppets, how they made them speak, answer ques- 
 tions, and discourse, appear and disappear in a mo- 
 ment, pop up here, as if they rose out of the earth, 
 and down there, as if they vanished, and abundance 
 more feats of art, censured them as demons ; arid, if 
 they had not packed up their trinkets, and disappeared, 
 almost as dexterously as their puppets, they had cer- 
 tainly condemned the poor puppets to the flames for 
 Devils, and censured, if not otherwise punished, their 
 masters. See the Count de Rochfort's Memoirs, p. 179. 
 
 Wonderful operations astonish the mind, especially 
 where the head is not overburdened with brains; and 
 custom has made it so natural to give the Devil either 
 the honor or scandal of everything, that we cannot 
 otherwise account for, that it is not possible to put the 
 people out of the road of it. 
 
 The magicians were, in the Chaldean monarchy, 
 called the wise men; and though they are joined with 
 the sorcerers and astrologers in the same place, Dan. 
 ii. 2, yet they were generally so understood among 
 those people ; but in our language we understand them 
 to be people that have an art to reveal secrets, inter- 
 pret dreams, foretell events, &c., and that use enchant- 
 ments and sorceries ; by all which we understand the 
 same thing; which now in a more vulgar way we ex- 
 press by one general coarse expression, dealing with 
 the Devil. 
 
 The scripture speaks of a spirit of divination, Acts 
 xvi. 16. "and a wench that was possessed by this 
 spirit brought her master much gain by soothsaying;" 
 that is to say, according to the learned, by oracling, or 
 answering questions ; whence you will see in the mar- 
 gin, that this soothsaying Devil is there called Python, 
 that is, Apollo, who is often called Python, and who 
 at the oracle of Delphos gave out such answers, and 
 double entendres, as this wench possibly did ; and 
 hence all those spirits which were called spirits of divi- 
 nation, were in another sense called Pythons. 
 
 Now when the apostle St. Paul came to see this 
 creature, this spirit takes upon it to declare, that 
 those men, meaning St. Paul and Timotheus, were the 
 servants of the Most High God, which showed unto 
 them the way of salvation. This was a good turn of 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 275 
 
 the Devil, to preserve his authority in the possessed 
 girl ; she brought them gain by soothsaying ; that is 
 to sayyresolving difficult questions, answering doubts, 
 interpreting dreams, &c. Among these doubts, he 
 makes her give testimony to Paul and Timotheus, to 
 wheedle in with the new Christians, and perhaps, 
 (though very ignorantly,) even with Paul and Tirno- 
 theus themselves, so to give a kind of credit and re- 
 spect to her for speaking. 
 
 But the Devil, who never speaks truth, but with 
 some sinister end, was discovered here, and detected ; 
 his flattering recognition not accepted, and he himself 
 unkennelled as he deserved ; there the Devil was over 
 shot in his own bow again. 
 
 Here now was a real possession, and the evil spirits 
 who. possessed her, did stoop to sundry little acts of 
 servitude, that we could give little or no reason for, 
 only that the girl's master might get money by her ; 
 but perhaps this was a particular case, and prepared 
 to honor the authority and power the apostles had over 
 evil spirits. 
 
 But we find these things carried a great way farther 
 in many cases ; that is to say, where the parties are 
 thus really possessed ; namely, the Devil makes agents 
 of the possessed parties to do many things for the pro- 
 pagating his interest and kingdom, and particularly 
 for the carrying on his dominion in the world. But I 
 am for the present not so much upon the real posses- 
 sion as the pretended ; and particularly we have had 
 many that have believed themselves possessed, when 
 the Devil never believed it of them, and perhaps knew 
 them better ; some of these are really poor devils, to 
 be pitied, and are what I call diables imaginaires ; 
 these have, notwithstanding, done the Devil good ser- 
 vice, and brought their masters good gain by sooth- 
 saying. 
 
 We find possessions acknowledged in scripture to 
 be really and personally the Devil, or according to the 
 text, legions of devils in the plural. The Devil, or 
 devils rather, which possessed the man among the 
 tombs, is positively affirmed to be the Devil, in the 
 scripture ; all the evangelists agree in calling him so, 
 and his very works show it ; namely, the mischief he 
 
276 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL, 
 
 did, as well to the poor creature among the tombs, who 
 was made so fierce, that he was the terror of all the 
 country, as to the herd of swine, and to the country in 
 the loss of them. 
 
 I might preach you a lecture here of the Devil's ter- 
 ror upon the approach of our Saviour, the dread of his 
 government, and how he acknowledged that there was 
 a time for his torment, which was not yet come. " Art 
 thou come to torment us before our time?" It is evi- 
 dent the devils apprehended that Christ would chain 
 them up before the day of judgment ; and therefore 
 some think the Devil here, being, as it were, caught 
 out of his due bounds, possessing the poor man in 
 such a furious manner, was afraid, and petitioned 
 Christ not to chain him up for it, and as the text says, 
 " They besought him to suffer them to go away," &c. ; 
 that is to say, when they say, "Art thou come to tor- 
 ment us before the time ?" the meaning is, they begged 
 he would not cast them into torment before the time 
 which was already fixed; but that, if he would cast 
 them out of the man, he would let them go away, &c. 
 
 The evangelist St. Luke says, the devils besought 
 him, that he would not command them to go out into 
 the deep. Our learned annotators think that part is 
 not rightly rendered ; adding, that they do not believe 
 the Devil fears drowning; but with submission, I be- 
 lieve the meaning is, that they would not be confined 
 to the vast ocean, where no inhabitants being to be 
 seen, they would be effectually imprisoned and tied 
 down from doing mischief, which would be an hell to 
 them; as to their going into the swine, that might af- 
 ford us some allegory ; but I am not disposed to jest 
 with the scripture ; no nor with the Devil neither, far- 
 ther than needs must. 
 
 It is evident the Devil makes use of very mean in- 
 struments sometimes, such as the damsel possessed 
 with a spirit of divination, and several others. 
 
 I remember a story, how true I know not, of a weak 
 creature, next door to an idiot, who was established in 
 the country for an oracle, and would tell people strange 
 things that should be, long before they came to pass ; 
 when people were sick, would tell them whether they 
 should live or die; if people were married, tell how 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 277 
 
 many children they should have; and an hundred 
 such things as filled the people with admiration ; and 
 they were the easier brought to believe that the girl 
 was possessed ; but then they were divided about her 
 loo, and that was the finest spun thread the Devil 
 could work, for he carried a great point in it ; some 
 said she had a good spirit, and some a bad ; some 
 said she was a prophetess, and some that she was the 
 Devil. 
 
 Now, had I been there to decide the question, I 
 should certainly have given it for the latter; if it were 
 only upon this account; namely, that the Devil has 
 often found fools very necessary agents for the propa- 
 gating his interest and kingdom, but we never knew 
 the good spirits do so ; on the other hand, it does not 
 seem likely that Heaven should deprive a poor crea- 
 ture of its senses, and as it were take her soul from 
 her, and then make her an instrument of instruction 
 to others, and an oracle to declare its decrees by ; this 
 does not seem to be rational. 
 
 But as far as this kind of divination is in use in our 
 days, yet I do not find room to charge the Devil with 
 making any great use of fools, unless it be such as he 
 has particularly qualified for his work ; for as to idiots 
 and naturals, they are perfectly useless to him ; but a 
 sort of fools called the Magi, indeed we have some 
 reason to think he often works with. 
 
 We are not arrived at a certainty yet, in the settling 
 this great point; namely, what magic is ? whether a 
 diabolical art, or a branch of the mathematics ? Our 
 most learned Lexicon Technicum is of the latter opinion, 
 and gives the magic square, and the magic lantern, two 
 terms of art. 
 
 The magic square is when numbers in arithmetical 
 proportion are disposed into such parallels, or equal 
 ranks, as that the sums of each row as well diagonally 
 as laterally shall be all equal : for example, 2, 3, 4, 5, 
 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Place these nine in a square of three, 
 they will directly and diagonally make 18. Thus, 
 
 This he calls the magic square, but 
 gives no reason for the term, nor any ac- 
 count of what infernal operations are 
 wrought by this concurrence of the num- 
 24 
 
 5 10 3 
 
 1 6~~8~ 
 
 927 
 
278 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 bers ; neither do I see that there can be any such use 
 made of it. 
 
 The magic lantern is an optic machine, by the 
 means of which are represented, on a wall in the dark, 
 many phantasms, and terrible appearances, but no 
 Devil in all this; only that they are taken for the 
 effects of magic, by .those that are not acquainted with 
 the secret, 
 
 All this is done by the help of several little painted 
 pieces of glass, only so and so situated, placed in cer- 
 tain oppositions to one another, and painted with dif- 
 ferent figures, the most formidable being placed fore- 
 most, and such as are most capable of terrifying the 
 spectators ; and by this all the figures may be repre- 
 sented upon the opposite wall, in the largest size. 
 
 I cannot but take notice, that this very piece of 
 optic delusion seems too much akin to the mock pos- 
 sessions, and infernal accomplishments, which most 
 of the possessionists of this age pretend to, so that they 
 are most of them mere phantasms and appearances, 
 and no more. Nor is the spirit of divination, the 
 magic, and necromancing, and other arts which were 
 called diabolical, found to be of any use in modern 
 practice; at least, in these parts of the world ; but the 
 Devil seems to do most of his work himself, and by 
 shorter methods ; for he has so complete an influence 
 among those that he now lists into his service, that he 
 brings all the common affairs of mankind into a nar- 
 rower compass in his management, with a dexterity 
 peculiar to himself, and by which he carries on his in- 
 terest silently and surely, much more to the detriment 
 of virtue and good government, and consequently 
 much more to his satisfaction, than ever he did before. 
 
 There is a kind of magic or sorcery, or what else 
 you may please to call it, which, though unknown to 
 us, is yet, it seems, still very much encouraged by the 
 Devil ; but this is a great way off, and in countries 
 where the politer instruments, which he finds here, are 
 riot to be had ; namely, among the Indians of North 
 America. This is called pa-wawing, and they have 
 their divines, which they call pa-waws^ or witches, 
 who use strange gestures, distortions, horrid smokes, 
 burnings and scents, and several such things which 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 279 
 
 the sorcerers and witches in ancient times are said to 
 use in casting nativities, in philtres, and in determin- 
 ing, or, as they pretended, directing, the fate of per- 
 sons; by burning such and such herbs and roots, such 
 as hellebore, wormwood, storax, devilwort, man- 
 drake, nightshade, and abundance more such, which 
 are called noxious plants, or the product of noxious 
 plants, also melting such and such minerals, gums, 
 and poisonous things, and by several hellish mutter- 
 ings and markings over them; the like do these pa- 
 waws ; and the Devil is pleased, it seems (or is per- 
 mitted,) to fall in with these things, and as some peo- 
 ple think, appears often to them for their assistance 
 upon those occasions. 
 
 But be that as it will, he is eased of all that trouble 
 here; he can pa-waw here himself, without their aid; 
 and. having laid them all aside, he negotiates much of 
 his business without ambassadors ; he is his own plen- 
 ipotentiary ; for he finds man so easy to come at, and 
 so easy when he is come at, that he stands in no 
 need of secret emissaries, or at least not so much as he 
 used to do. 
 
 Upon the whole, as the world, within the compass 
 of a few past years, is advanced in all kinds of knowl- 
 edge and arts, and every useful branch of what they 
 knew before improved, and innumerable useful parts 
 of knowledge, which were concealed before, are dis- 
 covered ; why should we think the Devil alone should 
 stand at a stay, has taken no steps to his farther ac- 
 complishment, and made no useful discoveries in his 
 way ? That he alone should stand at a stay, and be 
 just the same unimproved devil that he was before? 
 No, no, as the world is improved every day, and every 
 age is grown wiser and wiser than their fathers ; so, 
 no doubt, he has bestirred himself too, in order to an 
 increase of knowledge and discovery, and that he finds 
 every day a nearer way to go to work with mankind 
 than he had before. 
 
 Besides, as men in general seem to have altered 
 their manner, and that they move in an higher and 
 more exalted sphere, especially as to vice and virtue ; 
 so the Devil may have been obliged to change his 
 measures, and alter his way of working ; particularly. 
 
280 THE MODERN HISTOKY' OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 those things which would take in former times, and 
 which a stupid age would come easily into, will not go 
 down with us now. As the taste of vice and virtue 
 alters, the Devil is forced to bait his hook with new 
 compositions ; the very thing called temptation is al- 
 tered in its nature; and that which served to delude 
 our ancestors, whose gross conceptions of things caused 
 them to be manageable with less art, will not do now ; 
 the case is quite altered ; in some things, perhaps, as I 
 hinted above, we come into crime with ease, and may 
 be led by a finger; but when we come to a more re- 
 fined way of sinning, which our ancestors never under- 
 stood, other and more refined politics must be made 
 use of; and the Devil has been put upon many useful 
 projects and inventions, to make many new discoveries 
 and experiments to carry on his affairs ; and, to speak 
 impartially, he is strangely improved, either in knowl- 
 edge or experiment, within these few years ; he has 
 found out a great many new inventions to shorten his 
 own labor, and carry on his business in the world cur- 
 rently, which he never was master of before, or at 
 least we never knew he was. 
 
 No wonder then that he has changed hands too, and 
 that he has left off pa-wawing in these parts of the 
 world ; that we don't find our houses disturbed as they 
 used to be, and the stools and chairs walking about 
 out of one room into another, as formerly ; that chil- 
 dren do not vomit crooked pins, and rusty stub-nails, 
 as of old ; the air is not full of noises, nor the church- 
 yard full of hobgoblins ; ghosts do not walk about in 
 winding-sheets, and the good old scolding wives visit 
 and plague their husbands after they are dead, as they 
 did when they were alive. 
 
 The age is grown too wise to be agitated by these 
 dull scare-crow things which their forefathers were 
 tickled with ; Satan has been obliged to lay by his 
 puppet-shows, and his tumblers; those things are 
 grown stale ; his morrice-dancing Devils, his mounte- 
 banking and quacking, will not do now ; those things, 
 as they may be supposed to be very troublesome to 
 him (and but that he has servants enough would be 
 chargeable too,) are now of no great use in the new 
 management of his affairs. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 281 
 
 In a word, men are too much devils themselves, in 
 the sense that I have called them so, to be frighted 
 with such little, low-priced appearances as these ; they 
 are better acquainted with the old archangel than so, 
 and they seem to tell him they must be treated after 
 another manner, and that then, as they are good- 
 natured and tractable, he may deal with them on bet- 
 ter terms. 
 
 Hence the Devil goes to work with mankind a much 
 shorter way ; for, instead of the art of wheedling and 
 whining, together with the laborious part of tricking 
 and sharping, hurrying and driving, frighting and ter- 
 rifying, all which the Devil was put to the trouble 
 of before; in short, he acts the Grand Manner, as 
 the architects call it (I don't know whether our Free- 
 masons may understand the word ; and therefore I 
 may hereafter explain it. as it is to be diabolically as 
 well as mathematically understood.) 
 
 At present my meaning is, he acts with them imme- 
 diately and personally by a magnificent transformation, 
 making them mere devils to themselves, upon all need- 
 ful occasions, and devils to one another too, whenever 
 he (Satan) has need of their service. 
 
 This way of embarking mankind in the Devil's par- 
 ticular engagement, is really very modern ; and though 
 the Devil himself may have been long acquainted with 
 the method, and as I have heard, began to practise it 
 towards the close of the Roman empire, when men be- 
 gan to act upon very polite principles, and were capa- 
 ble of the most refined wickedness, and afterwards 
 with some popes, who likewise were a kind of church 
 devils, such as Satan himself could hardly expect to 
 find in the world; yet I do not find that he was ever 
 able to bring it into practice, at least so universally as 
 he does now. But now the case is altered, and, men 
 being generally more expert in wickedness than they 
 were formerly, they suffer the smaller alteration of the 
 species, in being transmigrated; in a word, they turn 
 into devils, with no trouble at all hardly, either to the 
 Devil, or to themselves. 
 
 How many mad fellows appear among us everyday 
 in the critical juncture of their transmigration, just 
 when they have so much of the man left as to be 
 24* * 
 
282 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 known by their names, and enough of the Devil taken 
 up to settle their characters ! This easiness of the 
 Devil's access to these people, and the great conve- 
 nience it is to him in his general business, is a proof to 
 me that he has no more occasion for diviners, magi- 
 cians, sorcerers, and whatever else we please to call 
 those people who were formerly so great with him ; for 
 what occasion has he to employ devils and wizards to 
 confound mankind, when he is arrived to such a per- 
 fection of art as to bring men at least in these parts 
 of the world, to do it all themselves? Upon this ac- 
 count we do not find any of the old sorcerers and di- 
 viners, magicians or witches, appear among us; not 
 that the Devil might not be as well able to employ 
 such people as formerly, and qualify them for the em- 
 ployment too, but that really there is no need of them 
 hereabout, the Devil having a shorter way, and man- 
 kind being much more easily possessed ; not the old 
 herd of swine were sooner agitated, though there were 
 full two thousand of them together ; nature has opened 
 the door, and the Devil has egress and regress at plea- 
 sure, so that the witches and diviners are quite out of 
 the question. 
 
 Nor let any man be alarmed at this alteration in the 
 case, as it stands between mankind and the Devil, and 
 think the Devil, having gained so much ground, may 
 in time, by encroachment, come to a general posses- 
 sion of the whole race, and so we should all come to 
 be devils incarnate ; I say, let us not be alarmed ; for 
 Satan does not get these advantages by encroachment, 
 and by his infernal power or art ; no, not at all ; but it 
 is the man himself does it, by his indolence and negli- 
 gence on one hand, and his complaisance to the Devil 
 on the other; and both ways he, as it were, opens the 
 door to him, beckons him with his very hand to come 
 in, and the Devil has nothing to do but enter and take 
 possession. Now, if it be so, and man is so frank to 
 him ; you know the Devil is no fool, not to take the 
 advantage when it is offered him ; and therefore it is 
 no wonder if the consequences which I have been just 
 now naming follow. 
 
 But let no man be discouraged by this, from re- 
 assuming his natural and religious powers, and ven- 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 283 
 
 turing to shut the Devil out ; for the case is plain, he 
 may be shut out ; the soul is a strong castle, and has 
 a good garrison placed within, to defend it ; if the gar- 
 rison behave well, and do their duty, it is impregna- 
 ble, and the cowardly Devil must raise his siege and 
 begone ; nay, he must fly, or, as we call it, make his 
 escape, lest he be laid by the heels ; that is, lest his 
 weakness be exposed, and all his lurking, lying-in-wait, 
 ambuscade tricks. This part would bear a great en- 
 largement ; but I have not room to be witty upon him ; 
 so you must take it in the gross, the Devil lies at Blye 
 Bush, as our country people call it, to watch your 
 coming out of your hold; and, if you happen to go 
 abroad unarmed, he seizes upon and masters you with 
 ease. 
 
 Unarmed ! you will say ; what arms should I take ? 
 what fence against a flail ? What weapons can a man 
 take to fight the Devil ? I could tell you what to fight 
 him with, and what you might fright him with ; for 
 the Devil is to be frighted with several things besides 
 holy water ; but it is too serious for you, and you will 
 tell me I am a-preaching and a-canting, and the like; 
 so I must let the Devil manage you, rather than dis- 
 please you with talking scripture and religion. 
 
 Well, but may not the Devil be fought with some of 
 his own weapons'? Is there no dealing with him in a 
 way of human nature? This would require along 
 answer, and some philosophy might be acted, or at 
 least imitated, and some magic, perhaps ; for they tell 
 us, there are spells to draw away even the Devil him- 
 self; as in some places they nail horseshoes upon the 
 threshold of the door to keep him out ; in other places 
 old pieces of flint, with so many holes, and so many 
 corners, and the like. But I must answer in the neg- 
 ative; I don't know what Satan might be scared at in 
 those days; but he is either grown cunninger since, or 
 bolder; for he values none of those things now. I 
 question much whether he would value St. Dunstan 
 and his red-hot tongs, if he was to meet him now, or 
 St. Francis, or any of the saints, no, not the host itself 
 in full procession ; and therefore, though you do not 
 care I should preach, yet, in short, if you are afraid he 
 should charge upon you and attack you, if you will 
 
284 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 not make use of the scripture weapons I should have 
 mentioned, and which you may hear of, if you inquire 
 at Eph. vi. 16, you must look for better where you 
 think you can find them. 
 
 But to go on with my work, the Devil, I say, is not 
 to be scared with maukins, nor does he employ his old 
 instruments, but does much of his work himself with- 
 out instruments. 
 
 And yet I must enter a caveat here too against being 
 misunderstood in my saying the Devil stands in no 
 need of agents ; for when I speak so, I am to be taken 
 in a limited sense ; I do not say he needs them no- 
 where, but only that he does not need- them in those 
 polite parts of the world which I have been speaking 
 of, and perhaps not much here; but in many remote 
 countries it is otherwise still; the Indians of America 
 are particularly said to have witches among them, as 
 well in those countries where the Spaniards, and the 
 English, and other notions have planted themselves, 
 as amongst those where the European nations seldom 
 come; for example, the people of Canada ; that is, of 
 the countries under the French government of Quebec, 
 the Esquimaux, and other northern climates, have ma- 
 gicians, wizards, and witches, whom they call Pilloatas, 
 or Pillotoas. These pretend they speak intimately and 
 familiarly with the Devil, and receive from him the 
 knowledge of things to come ; all which, by the way, 
 I take to be little more than this; that these fellows, 
 being a little more cunning than the rest, think that, 
 by pretending to something more than human, they 
 shall make the stronger impressions on the ignorant 
 people ; as Mahomet amused the world with his pigeon, 
 vising it to pick peas out of his ear, and persuaded the 
 people it brought him superior revelations and inspir- 
 ations from Paradise. 
 
 Thus these Pillotoas, gaining an opinion among the 
 people, behave like so many mountebanks of hell, pre- 
 tending to understand dark things, cure diseases, 
 practise surgery, physic, arid necromancy, all together. 
 I will not say, but Satan may pick out such tools to 
 work with, and I believe does in those parts ; but I 
 think he has found a nearer way to the wood with us; 
 and that is sufficient to my present purpose. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 285 
 
 Some would persuade me, the Pevil had a great 
 hand in the late religious breaches in France, among 
 the clergy; namely, about the Pope's Constitution 
 Unigenitus ; and that he made a fair attempt to set 
 the Pope and the Gallican church together by the 
 ears ; for they were all just upon the point of breaking 
 out into a church- war, that, for aught we knew, 
 might have gone farther than the Devil himself 
 cared it should. Now I am of the quite contrary 
 opinion. 1 believe the Devil really did not make the 
 breach, but rather heftled it, for fear it should have 
 gone so far among them as to have set them all in a 
 flame, and have opened the door to the return of the 
 Hugonots again, which it was in a fair way to have 
 done. 
 
 I might anticipate all your objections, by granting 
 the busy Devil is at this time employing all his agents 
 and instruments (for I never told you they were idle 
 and useless) in striving to inflame the Christian world, 
 and bring a new war to overspread Europe ; I might, 
 perhaps, point out to you some of the measures he 
 takes, the provocatives which his state-physicians 
 administer to the courts and counsellors of princes, to 
 foment and ferment the spirits and members of nations, 
 kingdoms, empires and states, in the world, in order to 
 bring these glorious ends of blood and war to pass ; for 
 you cannot think but he that knows so much of the 
 Devil's affairs, as to write his history, must know 
 something of all these matters more than those that do 
 not know so much as he. 
 
 But all this is remote to the present case ; for this is 
 no impeachment of Satan's new methods with man- 
 kind, in this part of the world, and in his private and 
 separate capacity ; all this only signifies, that in his 
 more general and national affairs, the Devil acts still 
 by his old methods ; and when he is to seduce or em- 
 broil nations, he, like other conquerors, subdues them 
 by armies, employs mighty squadrons of devils, and 
 sends out strong detachments, with generals and gen- 
 eralissimos to lead them, some to one part of the 
 world, some to another ; some to influence one nation, 
 some to manage and direct another, according as 
 business presents, and his occasions require, that his 
 
286 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 affairs may be carried on currently, and to his satis- 
 faction. 
 
 If it were not thus, but that the Devil by his new 
 and exquisite management, of which I have said so 
 much, had brought mankind in general to be the agents 
 of their own mischiefs, and that the world were so at 
 his beck, that he need but command them to go and 
 fight, declare war, raise armies, destroy cities, king- 
 doms, countries, and people; the world would be a 
 field of blood indeed, and all things would run into 
 confusion presently. 
 
 But this is not the case at all ; Heaven has not let 
 go the government of the creation to his subdued 
 enemy, the Devil; that would overturn the whole sys- 
 tem of God, and give Satan more power, than ever he 
 was, or will be vested with. When, therefore, I speak 
 of a few forward wretches in our day, who are so warm 
 in their wickedness, that they anticipate the Devil, 
 save him the trouble to tempt, turn devils to them- 
 selves, and gallop hellward faster than he drives ; I 
 speak of them as single persons, and acting in their 
 own personal and private capacity; but when I speak 
 of nations and kingdoms, there the Devil is obliged 
 to go on in the old road, and act by stratagem, by 
 his proper machinery, and to make use of all his arts, 
 and all his agents, just as he has done in all ages, 
 from the beginning of his politic government to this 
 day. 
 
 And if it was not thus too, what would become of 
 all his numberless legions, of which all ages have 
 heard so much, and all parts of the world have had so 
 much fatal experience ? Th^y would seem to be quite 
 out of employment, and be rendered useless in the 
 world of spirits, where it is to be supposed they reside; 
 not the Devil himself could find any business for 
 them, which, by the way, to busy and mischievous 
 spirits, as they are, would be an hell to them, even 
 before their time ; they would be, as it were, doomed 
 to a state of inactivity, which we may suppose was 
 one part of their expulsion from blessedness, and the 
 creation of man ; or as they were for the surprising 
 interval between the destruction of mankind by the 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 287 
 
 deluge and Noah's coming out of the ark, when indeed 
 they might be said to have nothing at all to do. 
 
 But this is not Satan's case ; and therefore let me 
 tell you too, that you may not think I treat the case 
 with more levity than I really do, and than I am sure I 
 intend to do ; though it is too true, that. our modern and 
 modish sinners have arrived to more exquisite ways of 
 being wicked than their fathers, and really seem, as I 
 have said, to need no devil to tempt them ; nay, that 
 they do Satan's work for him as to others also, and 
 make themselves devils to their neighbors, tempting 
 others to crime even faster than the Devil desires them, 
 running before they are sent, and going the Devil's 
 errands gratis; by wmch means, Satan's work is, as 
 to them, done to his hand, and they may be said to 
 save him a great deal of trouble; yet after all, the 
 Devil has still a great deal of business upon his hands, 
 and as well himself, as all his legions, find themselves 
 a full employment in disturbing the world, and oppos- 
 ing the glory and kingdom of their great Superior, 
 whose kingdom it is their whole business, however 
 vain in its end, to overthrow and destroy, if they were 
 able, or at least to endeavor it. 
 
 This being the case, it follows of course, that the 
 general mischiefs of mankind, as well national and 
 public, as family mischiefs, and even personal (except 
 as before excepted,) lie all still at the Devil's door, as 
 much as ever, let his advocates bring him off it, if 
 they can. Arid this brings us back again to the man- 
 ner of the Devil's management, and the way of his 
 working by human agents, or. if you will, the way of 
 human devils working in affairs of low life, such as 
 we call divination, sorcery, black art, necromancy, and 
 the like ; all which I take to consist of two material 
 parts, and both very necessary for us to be rightly in- 
 formed of. 
 
 1. The part which Satan by himself, or his inferior 
 devils, empowers such people to do, as he is in con- 
 federacy with here on earth, to whom he may be said, 
 like the master of an opera or comedy, to give their 
 part to act, and to qualify them to act it ; whether he 
 obliges them to a rehearsal in his presence, to try their 
 
288 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 talents, and see what they are capable of performing, 
 that indeed I have not inquired into. 
 
 2. That part which these empowered people da 
 volunteer, or beyond their commission, to show their 
 diligence in the service of their new master ; and either, 
 1. To bring grist to their own mill, and make their 
 market of their employment in the best manner they 
 can; or, 2. To gain applause, be admired, won- 
 dered at, and applauded, as if they were ten times 
 more devils than really they are. 
 
 In a word, the matter consists of what the Devil 
 does by the help of those people, and what they do in 
 his name without him. The Devil is sometimes 
 cheated in his own business. There are pretenders to 
 witchcraft and black art, whom Satan never made 
 any bargain with, but whom he connives at, because 
 at least they do his cause no harm, though their 
 business is rather to get money, than to render him 
 any service ; of which I gave you a remarkable in- 
 stance before. 
 
 But to go back to his real agents, of which I reckon 
 two: 
 
 1. Those who act by direction and confederacy, as 
 I have said already many do. 
 
 2. Those whom he acts in and by, and they perhaps 
 know it not ; of which sort history gives us plenty of 
 
 examples, from Machiavel's first disciple to the 
 
 famous Cardinal Alberoni, and even to some more 
 modern than his eminence, of whom I can say no more 
 till farther occasion offers. 
 
 1. Those who act by immediate direction of the 
 Devil, and in confederacy with him. These are such 
 as I mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, whose 
 arts are truly black, because really infernal. It will 
 be very hard to decide the dispute between those who 
 really act thus, in confederacy with the Devil, and 
 those who only pretend to it ; so I shall leave that 
 dispute where I found it. But that there are, or at 
 least have been, a set of people in the world, who 
 really are of his acquaintance, and very intimate with 
 him; and though, as I have said, he has much altered 
 his schemes, and changed hands, of late ; yet that 
 there are such people, perhaps of all sorts ; and that 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 289 
 
 the Devil keeps np his correspondence with them ; I 
 must not venture to deny that part, lest I bring upon 
 me the whole posse of the conjuring and bewitching 
 crew, male and female, and they should mob me for 
 pretending to deny them the honor of dealing with the 
 Devil, which they are so exceeding willing to have the 
 fame of. 
 
 Not that I am hereby obliged to believe all the 
 strange things the witches and wizards, who have been 
 allowed to be such, nay, who have been hanged for it, 
 have said of themselves ; nay, that they have con- 
 fessed of themselves, even at the gallows; and if I 
 come to have an occasion to speak freely of the mat- 
 ter, I may perhaps convince you, that the Devil's pos- 
 sessing power is much lessened of late ; and that he 
 either is limited, and his fetter shortened more than it 
 has been, or that he does not find the old way, as I 
 said before, so fit for his purpose as he did formerly, 
 and therefore takes other measures. But I must ad- 
 journ that to a time and place by itself. But we are 
 told, that there are another sort of people, and, perhaps, 
 a great many of them too, in whom, and by whom, 
 the Devil really acts, and they know it not. 
 
 It would take up a great deal of time and room, too 
 much for this place, so near the close of this work, to 
 describe and mark out the involuntary devils which 
 there are in the world ; of whom it may be truly said, 
 that really the Devil is in them, and they know it not. 
 Now, though the Devil is cunning and managing, and 
 can be very silent, where he finds it for his interest not 
 to be known ; yet it is very hard for him to conceal 
 himself, and to give so little disturbance in the house, 
 as that the family should not know who lodged in it. 
 Yet, I say, the Devil is so subtle and so mischievous 
 an agent, that he uses all manner of methods and craft, 
 to reside in such people as he finds for his purpose, 
 whether they will or no ; and which is more, whether 
 they know it or no. 
 
 And let none of my readers be angry, or think them- 
 selves ill used, when I tell them, the Devil may be in 
 them, and may act them, and by them, and they not 
 know it ; for I must add, it may, perhaps, be one of 
 the greatest pieces of human wisdom in the world, for 
 25 
 
290 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 a man to know when the Devil is in him, and when 
 not ; when he is a tool and agent of hell, and when he 
 is not; in a word, when he is doing the Devil's work, 
 and under his direction, and when not. 
 
 It is true, this is a very weighty point, and might 
 deserve to be handled in a more serious way than I 
 seem to be talking in all this book. But give me 
 leave to talk of things my own way ; and withal, to 
 tell you that there is no part of this work so seemingly 
 ludicrous, but a grave and well-weighed mind may 
 make a serious and solid application of it, if they 
 please ; nor is there any part of this work, in which a 
 clear sight, and a good sense may not see, that the 
 author's design is, that they should do so ; and, as 
 I am now so near the end of my book, I thought it 
 was meet to tell you so, and lead you to it as far as 
 I can. 
 
 I say, it is a great part of human wisdom, to know 
 when the Devil is acting in us and by us, and when 
 not ; the next, and still greatest part, would be, to 
 prevent him, put a stop to his progress, bid him go 
 about his business, and let him know, he should carry 
 on his designs no farther in that manner; that we will 
 be his tools no longer ; in short, to turn him out of 
 doors, and bring a stronger power to take possession. 
 But this, indeed, is too solid a subject, and too great 
 to begin with here. 
 
 But now, as to the bare knowing when he is at 
 work with us, I say, this, though it is considerable, 
 may be done, nor is it so difficult ; for example, you 
 have no more to do, but look a little more into the 
 microcosm of the soul, and see there, how the passions 
 which are the blood, and the affections, which are the 
 spirits, move in their particular vessels; how they cir- 
 culate, and in what temper the pulse beats there, and 
 you may easily see who turns the wheel. If a perfect 
 calm possesses the soul; if peace and temper prevail, 
 and the mind feels no tempests rising; if the affections 
 are regular, and exalted to virtuous and sublime ob- 
 jects, the spirits cool, and the mind sedate ; the man is 
 in a general rectitude of mind ; he may be truly said 
 to be his own man ; Heaven shines upon his soul with 
 Us benign influences, and he is out of the reach of the 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 291 
 
 evil spirit ; for the divine spirit is an influence of peace, 
 all calm and bright, happy and sweet, like itself, and 
 tending to everything that is good, both present and 
 future. 
 
 But, on the other hand, if at any time the mind is 
 ruffled ; if vapors rise, clouds gather ; if passions swell 
 the breast ; if anger, envy, revenge, hatred, wrath, strife, 
 if these, or any of these, hover over you ; much more, 
 if you feel them within you ; if the affections are pos- 
 sessed, and the soul hurried down the stream to em- 
 brace low and base objects ; if those spirits, which are 
 the life and enlivening powers of the soul, are drawn 
 off to parties, and to be engaged in a vicious and cor- 
 rupt manner, shooting out wild and wicked desires, and 
 running the man headlong into crime; the case is 
 easily resolved, the man is possessed, the Devil is in 
 him ; and, having taken the fort, or at least the coun- 
 terscarp and out-works, is making his lodgment to 
 cover and secure himself in his hold, that he may not 
 be dispossessed. 
 
 Nor can he be easily dispossessed, when he has got 
 such hold as this; and it is no wonder, that being 
 lodged thus upon the out-works of the soul, he 
 continues to sap the foundation of the rest ; and by his 
 incessant and furious assaults, reduces the man at last 
 to a surrender. 
 
 If the allegory be not as just and apposite as you 
 would have it be, you may, however, see by it, in a 
 full view, the state of the man, and how the Devil car- 
 ried on his designs. Nothing is more common, and, I 
 believe, there are few thinking minds but may reflect 
 upon it in their own compass, than for our passions 
 and affections to flow out of the ordinary channel ; 
 the spirits and blood of the soul to be extravasated, the 
 passions grow violent and outrageous, the affections 
 impetuous, corrupt, and violently vicious. Whence does 
 all this proceed? From Heaven we cannot pretend it 
 comes ; if we must not say it is the Devil, whose door 
 must it lie at? Pride swells the passions; avarice 
 moves the affections ; and what is pride, and what is 
 avarice, but the Devil in the inside of the man ? ay, as 
 personally and really as ever he was in the herd of 
 swine. 
 
292 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 Let not any man then, who is a slave to his pas- 
 sions, or who is chained down to his covetousness, 
 pretend to take it ill, when I say, he has the Devil in 
 him, or that he is a devil. What else can it be, and 
 how comes it to pass that passion and revenge so often 
 dispossess the man of himself, as to lead him to 
 commit murder, to lay plots and snares for the life of 
 his enemies, and so to thirst for blood ? How conies 
 this, but by the Devil's putting those spirits of the 
 soul into so violent a ferment, into a fever, that the 
 circulation is precipitated to that degree, and that the 
 man too is precipitated into mischief, and at last into 
 ruin ? It is all the Devil, though the man does not 
 know it. 
 
 In like manner, avarice leads him to rob, plunder 
 and destroy, for money, and to commit sometimes the 
 worst of violences, to obtain the wicked reward. How 
 many have had their throats cut for their money, have 
 been murdered on the highway, or in their beds, for 
 the desire of what they had? It is the same thing in 
 other articles ; every vice is the Devil in a man ; lust 
 of rule is the Devil of great men ; and that ambition is 
 
 their devil, as much as w is Father 's 
 
 devil ; one has a devil of one class acting him, one 
 another ; and every man's reigning vice is a devil to 
 him. 
 
 Thus the Devil has his involuntary instruments, as 
 well as those who act in confederacy with him ; he 
 has a very great share in many of us, and acts us, 
 and in us, unknown to ourselves, though we know 
 nothing of it, and indeed though we may not suspect 
 it ourselves ; like Hazael the Assyrian, who, when the 
 prophet told him how he would act the Devil upon 
 the poor Israelites, answered with detestation, "Is thy 
 servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" and yet 
 he was that dog, and did all those cruel things for all 
 that ; the Devil acting him, or acting in him, to make 
 him wickeder than ever he thought it was possible for 
 him to be. 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 293 
 
 THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 Of the Devil's last scene of liberty, and what may be 
 supposed to be his end ; with what we are to under- 
 stand of his being tormented for ever and ever. 
 
 As the Devil is a prince of the power of the air, his 
 kingdom is mortal, and must have an end; and as he 
 is called the god of this world, that is, the great 
 usurper of the homage and reverence which mankind 
 ought of right to pay to their Maker, so his usurpation 
 also, like the world itself, must have an end. Satan 
 is called the god of the world, as men too much pros- 
 trate and prostitute themselves to him; yet he is not 
 the governor of this world ; and therefore the homage 
 and worship he has from the world is an usurpation ; 
 and this will have an end, because the world itself 
 will have an end ; and all mankind, as they had a 
 beginning in time, so must expire, and be removed, 
 before the end of time. 
 
 Since then the Devil's empire is to expire, and come 
 to an end ; and that the Devil himself, and all his host 
 of devils, are immortal seraphs, spirits that are not 
 embodied, and cannot die, but are to remain in being; 
 the question before us next will be, What is to become 
 of him? what is his state to be? whither is he to 
 wander ? and in what condition is he to remain to that 
 eternity to which he is still to exist ? 
 
 I hope no man will mistake me so much in what I 
 have said as to spirits, which are all flame, not being 
 affected with fire, as if I supposed there was no place 
 of punishment for -the Devil, nor any kind of punish- 
 ment that could affect them ; and so of our spirits also, 
 when transformed into flame. 
 
 I must be allowed to speak there of that material 
 fire, by which, as by an allegory, all the terrors of an 
 eternal state are represented to us in scripture, and in 
 the writings of the learned commentators, and by 
 which the pain of sense is described. This, perhaps, 
 25* 
 
294 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 I do not understand as they seem to do, and therefore 
 have said, 
 
 When we are all flame, (that is, all spirit,) we 
 shall all fire (that is, all such fire as this) despise. 
 And thus I claim to be understood. 
 
 It does not follow from hence, neither do I suggest, 
 or so much as think, that infinite power cannot form 
 a something (though inconceivable to us here,) which 
 shall be as tormenting, and as insupportable, to a 
 devil, an apostate seraph, and to a spirit, though 
 exalted, unembodied, and rarefied into flame, as fire 
 would be to other bodies ; in which I think I am 
 orthodox, and do not give the least occasion to an 
 enemy to charge me with profane speaking, in those 
 words, or to plead for thinking profanely himself. 
 
 It must be atheistical to the last degree, to suggest, 
 that whereas the Devil has been heaping up and 
 amassing guilt ever since the creation of man, increas- 
 ing in hatred of God, and rebellion against him, and 
 in all possible endeavor to dethrone and depose the 
 majesty of heaven ; that yet Heaven had not prepared, 
 or could not prepare, a just penalty for him; and that 
 it should not all end in God's entire victory over hell, 
 and in Satan's open condemnation. Heaven could not 
 be just to its own glory, if he should not avenge him- 
 self upon this rebel, for all his superlative wickedness 
 in. his modern as well as ancient station; for the blood 
 of so many millions of his faithful subjects and saints 
 whom he has destroyed ; and, if nothing else offered 
 itself to prove this part, it would appear undoubted to 
 me. But this, I confess, does not belong to Satan's 
 history ; and therefore I have reserved it to this place, 
 and shall also be the shorter in it. 
 
 That his condition is to be a state of punishment, 
 and that by torment, the Devil himself has owned ; 
 and his calling out to our blessed Lord, when he cast 
 him out of the furious man among the tombs, is a 
 proof of it; "What have we to do with thee;" and 
 "Art thou come to torment us before the time?" 
 (Luke viii. 28,) where the Devil acknowledges four 
 things, and three of them are directly to my present 
 purpose; and, if you won't believe the word of God, I 
 
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 295 
 
 hope you will believe the Devil, especially when it is 
 an open confession against himself. 
 
 1. He confessed Christ to be the Son of God, (that 
 by the way,) and no thanks to him ; for that does not 
 want the Devil's evidence. 
 
 2. He acknowledges he may be tormented. 
 
 3. He acknowledges Christ was able to torment 
 him. 
 
 4. He acknowledges that there is a time appointed 
 when he shall be tormented. 
 
 As to how, in what manner, and by what means, 
 this tormenting the Devil is to be performed or exe- 
 cuted, that I take to be as needless to us, as it is im- 
 possible, to know; and, not being at present inclined 
 to fill your heads and thoughts with weak and imper- 
 fect guesses, I leave it where I find it. 
 
 It is enough to us, that this torment of the Devil is 
 represented to us by fire; it being impossible for our 
 confined thoughts to conceive of torment by anything 
 in the world more exquisite. Whence I conclude, that 
 devils shall at last receive a punishment suitable to 
 their spirituous nature, and as exquisitely tormenting 
 as a burning fire would be to our bodies. 
 
 Having thus settled my own belief of this matter, 
 and stated it so, as I think will let you see it is rightly 
 founded, the matter stands thus : 
 
 Satan, having been let loose to play his game in this 
 world, has improved his time to the utmost ; he has 
 not failed on all occasions to exert his hatred, rage 
 and malice, at his conqueror and enemy, namely, his 
 Maker ; he has not failed, from principles of mere envy 
 and pride, to pursue mankind with all possible rancor, 
 in order to deprive him of the honor and felicity which 
 he was created for, namely, to succeed the Devil and 
 his angels in the state of glory from which they fell. 
 
 This hatred of God, and envy at man, having 
 broken out in so many several ways in the whole 
 series of time from the creation, must necessarily have 
 greatly increased his guilt ;,and, as Heaven is righteous 
 to judge him, must terminate in an increase of punish- 
 ment, adequate to his crime, and sufficient to his 
 nature. 
 
 Some have suggested, that there is yet a time to 
 
296 THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 come, when the Devil shall exert more rage and do 
 more mischief than ever yet he has been permitted to 
 do. Whether he shall break his chain, or be unchained 
 for a time, they cannot tell, nor I either; and it is 
 happy for my work, that even this part too does not 
 belong to his history. If ever it shall be given an 
 account of by mankind, it must be after it is come to 
 pass ; for my part is not prophecy of foretelling what 
 the Devil shall do, but history of what he has done. 
 
 Thus, good people, I have brought the history of 
 the Devil down to your own times ; I have, as it were, 
 raised him for you, and set him in your view, that 
 you may know him and have a care of him. 
 
 If any curminger men among you think they are 
 able now to lay him again, and so dispose of him out 
 of your sight, that you shall be troubled no more with 
 him, either here or hereafter, let them go to work with 
 him their own way; you know things future do not 
 belong to an historian ; so I leave him among you, 
 wishing you may be able to give no worse an account 
 of him for the time to come, than I have done for the 
 time past. 
 
 END. 
 
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